
CHANDIGARH, May 22: Superintendent Criminal Branch, Punjab and Haryana High Court, Bal Bahadur Singh Batta was remanded to police custody till tomorrow by UT Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate B. C. Gupta in an alleged case of cheating and criminal conspiracy, here today.
Bal Bahadur8217;s bail plea will also come up for arguments tomorrow. He was arrested by the Chandigarh Police under Section 420 and 120-B of the IPC on Thursday afternoon.
According to the prosecution, part of the money taken by one Raj Kumar for getting the son of Gurcharan Singh Batta Bal Bahadur8217;s brother recruited in film industry had been passed on to the accused. Raj Kumar is the nephew of the Batta brothers. Gurcharan Singh had earlier alleged that Raj Kumar had cheated him by taking over Rs 3 lakh on pretext of getting his son introduced in the film industry, but had failed to do the same.
Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Yadvinder Kaur stated that a two-day police remand was required to get the money recovered and question the accused about where the money had been deposited. Opposing the plea for police remand, the defence counsel contended that the accused had not been named in the FIR. Moreover, the amount deposited in the bank could be accounted for by the accused.
The defence counsel further argued that the money deposited in his account could not be connected with the alleged offence.
The accused, when asked, admitted depositing Rs 48,000 and Rs 30,000 on March 18, 1996 and April 9, 1996 and on subsequent dates also, explaining the same to be arrears of salary earlier received.