Assault, extortion case: Chaitar Vasava can be quizzed by cops in jail twice a week for a month, says court

On Thursday, after hearing arguments of both sides, the sessions court permitted the district police to question the Gujarat AAP working president twice a week for one month in judicial custody. The district police revision petition seeking remand was based on the ground that the MLA had not yet surrendered the weapon he allegedly used

for firing rounds in the air while allegedly intimidating forest officials at his residence on October 30.

Narmada district Superintendent of Police Prashant Sumbe told The Indian Express, “The court has granted us two days in a week for one month to question Chaitar Vasava in the jail premises itself. It means that we have a total of eight days to continue questioning Chaitar Vasava. The main ground for the revision petition seeking remand was the recovery of the weapon that was used during the incident.”

Sumbe added that the police would also question Vasava on the possibility that the weapon could have been destroyed.

“We will question him about where the weapon was brought from and how it was destroyed or hidden. If we are unable to recover the weapon during the interrogation, we may invoke the sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for destruction of evidence,” he said.

A local court in Dediapada in Narmada district had on December 18 had sent Chaitar to judicial custody at the end of the three days police remand in the alleged November 2 case of extortion and assault of forest officials.

Chaitar Vasava, who had evaded arrest for over a month and surrendered on December 14, moved a bail plea in the court on December 18, which was rejected.

The FIR, lodged at Dediapada police station, alleged that Chaitar and his family abused five forest officials and assaulted one of them on October 30, where the AAP leader also allegedly fired a round in the air to intimidate the forest officer, who later filed a complaint with the police.

The FIR has named seven other accused — Shakuntala, Jitendra, farmer Ramesh Vasava and his wife from Jhadoli village and three villagers from Bogaj village including two daughters and a son-in-law of a man named Dungarji Vasava as well as two other unidentified men.