Chaitar Vasava, 4 others sent to 3 days in police custody

The remand application also detailed the monetary transaction of Rs 60,000 between officers of the forest department and the accused as part of the “extortion” charge invoked against the MLA.

“The grounds for the remand put forth before the court were that the accused number 1– Chaitar Vasava– is an MLA of the state, which is a constitutional designation. A person holding such a designation called government employees — forest officials — to his house and intimidated them and fired a round in the air. The police are yet to recover the weapon and the bullet cases from the firing and also investigate who tampered with the scene of crime to erase evidence of firing,” Public prosecutor Mukesh Chauhan said.

Chauhan added that the remand application also states the police are yet to recover Rs 30,000 of the Rs 60,000 of the extortion money allegedly paid by the forest officials to the accused. “Apart from the recovery of the extortion money, it is also a matter of investigation where the accused was for a month-and-a-half since the FIR was filed. If it were a false allegation, as contended by the accused, then as a person holding a constitutional designation, he would not be in hiding for so long,” the prosecutor said.

AAP National Joint Secretary Gopal Italia, on behalf of Chaitar, raised strong objection over the use of the word “dhongi” (hypocrite) in the remand application. Terming it an “evidence of political interference” in the case, Italia said, “I have drawn the attention of the court to the use of the words by the police in their remand application against Chaitar as highly disrespectful and indecent. The police have said that ‘the accused in the case is a dhongi’. I have told the court that if such words are used in reference to an MLA, who has won his constituency by a margin of over 1 lakh votes, it indicates a political hand behind the police case.”

Italia reiterated that the case was a political conspiracy. “This false FIR is a political event, orchestrated by the powers… The allegation of firing is completely baseless as there was no firing. We have contended that the entire sequence of events narrated in the FIR by the complainant is concocted at the instructions of the ruling party,” he said.

After being granted remand for Chaitar and the four accused, the district police promptly set out to complete the process of investigation, starting with the “reconstruction of events” narrated in the FIR. Under heavy police deployment, the police took Chaitar and the other accused to his residence in Bogaj village where the said incident allegedly occurred on October 30. Chaitar’s family, including his mother Ramanben, second wife Varsha and three children were also present in the court to meet the leader, who had been evading arrest since the FIR was filed on November 2.