For the second consecutive day on Tuesday, the Delhi police questioned the former personal secretary of dismissed Delhi Minister Sandeep Kumar in connection with the alleged leaking of the sex video purportedly featuring Mr. Kumar.
Mr. Kumar has blamed Praveen, his childhood friend and a key aide, of blackmailing him and threatening to leak the video to tarnish his image.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Outer) Vikramjit Singh told The Hindu that the custodial interrogation of Mr. Kumar was done in the presence of Mr. Praveen and the two were confronted about the allegations made by the former Minister.
He, however, did not divulge further about the questions or whether any recoveries had been made so far.
Mr. Praveen had earlier been called for questioning on Monday but was recalled again as the police had to corroborate some more facts.
So far he had not been named in any case while Mr. Kumar faced charges of rape as the woman allegedly seen in the video accused him of raping her on the pretext of getting a ration card for her.
Legal opinionPolice sources said they were seeking legal opinion about whether to file a separate case against Mr. Praveen based on Mr. Kumar’s statement or to name him in the same case registered under Sections 376 (rape) of the IPC as well as Sections 66E (violation of privacy) and 67A (publishing sexually explicit content) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. Mr. Kumar purportedly claimed that he had handed over his phone to Mr. Praveen who leaked the video.
Mr. Singh, however, said that will depend on whether the blackmailing allegations made by Mr. Kumar are substantiated.
