The case of scheduled caste man Jitendra Das allegedly beaten to death in Tehri district has taken a new turn after a colleague of one of the accused arrested by the police claimed to have CCTV footage of him working in a hotel in Dehradun at the time of the said incident.
The footage has still not been verified by the police, though employees of the hotel including the manager state they are ready to give statement that the accused Rohit Aswal alias Gabbar was on duty in the hotel here on the night of April 26 when the crime took place.
Chain Singh, the manager of the hotel in Dehradun where the accused works said, “He was working with us on the night of April 26. He has been wrongly accused and arrested. It is wrong for an innocent man to get arrested like this.”
When asked if they provided the CCTV footage to the police he said, “Yes, Gabbar showed the footage to the police before the death of Jitendra Das.
After the death of Jitendra Das, when they came to arrest him, even then he mentioned the footage, but then the police said that anyone who has been accused and named under SC-ST Act gets arrested at least once.”
He further said, “My staff members including myself and the owner of the hotel are ready to give statement about him being on duty that night.
How can anyone travel about 105 kilometre distance in such a short period of time?”
When asked about this, the police director general (Law and Order) Ashok Kumar said that this is an aspect of the case which needs to be investigated.
The said accused should not have been arrested if he had shown the CCTV footage earlier, he opined, adding that the matter will be probed.
Narendranagar police CO Uttam Singh said that the CCTV footage is a matter of investigation.
It is pertinent to mention here that all seven accused in this case including Gabbar, have been arrested by the police and are in Tehri district jail under police remand.