A special NIA Court on Saturday allowed National Investigation Agency (NIA) to continue its investigations with former Minister Gopal Krishna Patar aka Raja Peter, Maoists Kundan Pahan and Balram Sahu for another two days in connection with the killing of the then Tamar MlA Ramesh Singh Munda from Janta Dal (United) in 2008.
The court, however, also permitted Peter’s lawyers to visit him at his will after every four hours against their demand of meeting in every two hours to ascertain that Peter was not tortured in between and to offer advisory support if and when needed with the accused.
Notably, Peter fainted during hearings in the morning little after he was introduced in the court after his earlier remand of four days exhausted on Friday. He was attended by a team of doctors from Sadar Hospital, who after thorough check-up ruled out possibilities of anything serious other than fatigue and anxiety and found the accused physically fit for further proceedings, which resumed after around an hour and half. Meanwhile, Peter’s wife accused the NIA of torturing her husband in custody.
Though lawyers of Peter argued against any further remand of ex-Minister saying that neither his client had to reveal anything more, nor the NIA had left anything with them to ask from the accused, the public prosecutor argued that major portion of four day remand was consumed in the accused meeting with his loved ones and relatives, and the NIA had lot many things to know from Peter so that the missing dots could be well-connected to take the case on conclusion. The court of Shyamanand Tiwari allowed NIA to interrogate Peter and two others for another two days.
Earlier on Friday, the NIA reached Tamar on Friday to verify the evidences gathered by it and to connect the missing dots. Raja Peter was said to have been taken to his office and other locations in Tamar to verify the facts revealed by him during interrogation. He, however, has stood firm with his rejection of involvement in the killing of Munda yet despite standing on shaky grounds as far as claims by NIA after four days of interrogation is concerned. NIA has charged Peter for conniving with Maoists and paying them to get his closest political rival and sitting Tamar MlA Ramesh Singh Munda killed.