Cops suspect8217; Vikas8217; involvement in murder

NEW DELHI, MAY 31: The Delhi Police have sought cancellation of Vikas Yadav's bail in the Jessica Lal murder case on grounds saying it ha...

NEW DELHI, MAY 31: The Delhi Police have sought cancellation of Vikas Yadav8217;s bail in the Jessica Lal murder case on grounds saying it has prima facie suspicion of his involvement in the crime. quot;We have reasonable suspicion of his complicity in the crime,quot; standing counsel S.S. Gandhi submitted before the vacation bench of the Delhi High Court today. The police were challenging the bail granted by a lower court here to the son of Rajya Sabha MP and Jantantrik Bhahujan Samaj Party JBSP leader D.P. Yadav on Saturday.

Gandhi said investigations had revealed that prime accused Manu Sharma 8212; son of former Union Minister Vinod Sharma 8212; and Vikas were frequent visitors to Bina Ramani8217;s Tamarind Court restaurant, where the model was shot dead allegedly by Manu on April 30.

On the fateful day, he quoted investigation reports, both Manu and Vikas had gone to the restaurant together from the house of Amardeep Singh Gill alias Tony, who is charged with destroying the evidence in the case.

Incidentally, Vikas had moved an urgent petition at the residence of Chief Justice S.N. Variava yesterday, accusing the police of 8220;harassment and mental torture8221;. Following this, the same division bench in their interim order yesterday, had allowed presence of Vikas8217;s advocate during his interrogation by police.

Today, it was clarified that the police could permit the presence of advocate at a visible, but not audible, distance. The judges also rejected his counsel I.U. Khan8217;s plea that Vikas may not be called to the police station for interrogation during night.

The court sought to know if the charges levelled against Vikas were bailable, on what grounds was the police seeking cancellation of the lower court8217;s bail order. Government counsel cited a Supreme Court ruling saying 8220;when there is reasonable ground to believe the involvement of an accused in a crime, the bail may not be given8221;. Justices S.K. Mahajan and Mukul Mudgal adjourned the matter to June 7 when the applications for cancellation of bails of three other accused 8212; Tony Gill, Alok Khanna and Amit Jhingan 8212; will come up for hearing. The police had earlier moved the high court for cancellation of bail granted to them by a lower court earlier this month.