Chandigarh stalking case: Haryana BJP president’s son Vikas Barala sent to two-day police custody

A local court Thursday sent Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala, and Vikas’s friend Ashish Kumar to police custody for two days. Both will again be produced in court on August 12. Vikas and Ashish are facing charges of stalking, wrongful restraint and abduction attempt on Haryana IAS officer V S Kundu’s daughter Varnika Kundu. Amid tight security cover, both the accused were produced in the court of Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Barjinder Pal Singh around 2 pm. A large number of police personnel were deployed inside and outside the district courts complex in Sector 43 in Chandigarh. Public Prosecutor Ravinder Khatana sought two days’ police custody of both the accused on the grounds that the police need them for reconstructing the scene of crime. Khatana said police also require their custody for establishing motive behind the crime. Objecting to the prosecution’s plea, defense counsel Surya Prakash Garg pleaded “not guilty” for both the accused. He contended that “neither any kidnapping nor any molestation or any other offence was committed”. The defense counsel added that it was “just a media trial”. The defence counsel added that there was nothing to be recovered from the accused as no weapons were used in the crime and thus police custody was not required. However, the prosecution maintained that custody of the accused was required not only for reconstruction of the scene of crime but also to verify their previous track record and to check if they were involved in any other crime in the past. In a late-night development, Vikas Barala and Ashish Kumar were taken from Sector 26 police station for the reconstruction of crime scene. The accused, accompanied by DSP Satish Kumar and inspector Devinder Singh, were taken to sector 7, then to Sector 26 and later to Chandigarh Housing Board light point. They were also taken to GMSH-16 for regular medical examination. DSP Satish refused to divulge more details.