More trouble is brewing for Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar, who have been arrested on charges of stalking and attempting to abduct Varnika Kundu, an IAS officer’s daughter.
A CCTV footage, dated August 4 has emerged, which clearly shows that the accused men were purchasing alcohol from a store before chasing Varnika Kundu on the roads of Chandigarh on the intervening night of August 4 and 5. The footage shows Ashish buying alcohol from a shop located in Sector 9 here.
The footage strengthens the claim that the duo were allegedly in an inebriated state while they chased her when she was driving back home in her car from Chandigarh to Panchkula.
Notably, the duo had refused to give their blood and urine samples after their detention for allegedly stalking Varnika. Following this, the report prepared by doctors of the civil hospital at Manimanjra in Chandigarh stated, “Their breath smelled of alcohol and their eyes were red (congestion of the conjunctiva) and both denied to give blood and urine samples to testify the blood alcohol content.”
However, Chandigarh Director General of Police Tejinder luthra had said the accused being law graduates knew the law too well. Therefore, they refused to give their samples. Such refusal can be held against them in the investigation and also during the trial, luthra had said.
The CCTV footage from different places indicated that the accused were chasing the complainant on Friday midnight. CCTV footage from around six places has been retrieved by the city police. The footages showed the victim’s black car being followed by a white SUV.
During interrogation by Chandigarh Police, accused Vikas has admitted that he was driving the white SUV during the night of the incident. Both have denied charges of stalking the complainant and making an attempt to kidnap her.
The Chandigarh Police took the two accused for medical examination on late Thursday night and also took them to the route of chase to re-construct the scene of crime.
Earlier on Thursday, a Chandigarh court had sent Vikas and Ashish to two-day police custody till August 12. The duo was re-arrested on Wednesday after being charged with a non-bailable offence of attempted abduction under Sections 365 and 511 of the IPC, which relates to an attempt to commit an offence punishable with life or other imprisonment.
They were earlier arrested on Saturday following the complaint of Varnika, who is the daughter of Haryana Additional Chief Secretary VS Kundu, but were released on bail as they had been booked under bailable sections of the IPC and the Motor Vehicles Act.
The alleged stalking incident and their release triggered a nationwide outrage and a spate of protests.