Pandey remanded in judicial custody for 3 days

Rejecting the Delhi Police’s demand for extending the custody of Lucknow-based realtor Ashish Pandey, who brandished a pistol at a five-star hotel, the Patiala House Court on Friday remanded him in judicial custody for three days.

Although the pistol and the BMW car, used at the time of the incident, had been recovered during Pandey’s one-day police custody on Thursday itself, Devender Arya, deputy commissioner of police (southwest), said investigators wanted the accused’s custody to establish the sequence of events.

The court turned down the plea and instead sent Pandey to judicial custody until Monday.

The DCP said Pandey’s interrogation and his interaction with Gaurav Singh have established that the quarrel leading to the brandishing of the weapon began over Singh’s entry into a women’s washroom. In the days following the confrontation that was caught on camera, Singh, the son of a former three-time legislator from Delhi, had maintained that he never entered the women’s washroom.

Singh had claimed that when his woman friend wanted to throw up, he had accompanied her to the washroom of the hotel, but waited outside.

According to his early statement, the quarrel began when Pandey’s three women friends visited the same washroom and began bullying and abusing his friend.

But the DCP said Singh has now confirmed that he did enter the women’s washroom, but stood near the door.