Haryana BJP chief’s son held for stalking
POLICE ACTION Five days after midnight chase, Vikas Barala and friend charged for trying to kidnap Chandigarh disc jockey
CHANDIGARH: Haryana BJP chief’s son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar were arrested on Wednesday after attempt to kidnapping charge was slapped against the two accused of stalking a disc jockey.
The Chandigarh Police, criticised for going soft on them, slapped non-bailable charges against the men five days after they allegedly followed 29-yearold Varnika Kundu’s car in a midnight chase.
“Following interrogation, new facts emerged and we decided to press two new charges… The accused will be produced in court tomorrow. We will seek police remand from the court,” Chandigarh director general of police Tajender Singh Luthra said.
The 23-year-old Barala and 27-year-old Kumar surrendered at a fortified Sector 26 police station on a rainy afternoon amid high drama and huge media presence. They were summoned at 11am but they showed up in a white Ford Endeavou almost hours later amid tight security, as policemen weathered pouring rain and a scrum of media and public, including Congress and Aam Aadmi Party protesters.
The men, who are lawyers by training, were questioned for two hours before police booked them under Sections 365 (kidnapping or abduction with intent to confine a person) and Section 511 (attempt to commit offence punishable with life imprisonment) of the Indian Penal Code.
They were briefly arrested on August 5 after Kundu approached police but were released as the charges were bailable. The Opposition accuse the Centre and the Haryana government of interfering in the case and trying to defend the party leader’s son.
Chandigarh Police reports to the Centre as the city is a union territory. “The arrests and new charges are based on legal opinion, new pieces of evidence in the form of CCTV footage, statement of witnesses and the map of the route,” Luthra said.
Police had also come under fire after they said the CCTV cameras along the route were not functional. Later, they said they retrieved footage, which is vital to proving the stalking charge, from five cameras. Well versed with law, the men refused to give blood and urine samples after their arrest on August 5 and it could go against them during the trial, Luthra said.
Minutes before the surrender, the BJP tried to wash its hands of the accused. “Vikas (Barala) and the BJP are separate. The opposition parties are trying to mislead people by saying that the BJP is influencing the probe,” party spokesman Jawahar Yadav said.
As he was speaking to media, Vikas Barala’s father Subhash walked in and said his son would join investigation. He left as abruptly as he came.
On August 5, Barala and Kumar allegedly started following Kundu in their SUV at around 12.20am. During the 20-minute chase, the SUV pulled up close to her car several times and even tried to block her way, Kundu said in her complaint.