A city court has extended the judicial custody of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Councillor Dimple Chadha, accused of pressurising a builder to pay bribe to save a building from being demolished by the MCD, by 14 days.
Special CBI judge Pradeep Chaddah extended Dimple's judicial custody till November 1. Dimple, a Councillor from Sant Garh in West Delhi’s Tilak Nagar who is also the Vice-President of SAD (Badal), is accused of pressurising Santokh Singh, a builder in his constituency, to pay Rs 2 lakh for raising a structure or else he would get it demolished by MCD officials. He had surrendered before the CBI on September 27 after evading the arrest for two weeks and after being refused anticipatory bail by the court.
The Councillor’s personal assistant Gagan Arora is also an accused in the case and was nabbed red-handed by the CBI on September 14. Complainant Santokh Singh had also written to police seeking protection alleging that he had received a threatening call from Dimple while he was absconding. In its order rejecting Dimple’s anticipatory bail plea on September 24, the court had noted that Dimple had been extorting money using his muscle power and misusing the armed police guards provided by Punjab Police.
"Out of hundred people who suffer extortion, only a handful gathers the courage to lodge a complaint. Keeping in mind his behaviour, it would not be in the interest of justice to let him roam free," said the court.
ENDS