Lawyers for the cash-for-votes scam accused, Sohail Hindustani and Sanjeev Saxena, on Friday dubbed the Delhi Police probe eyewash, even as a sessions court here remanded the duo in judicial custody for 14 days in the Tihar Central Jail.
Earlier, Additional Sessions Judge Sangeeta Dhingra Sehgal asked the police what they got from the interrogation of Mr. Hindustani in the past 24 hours he was in their custody.
The Crime Branch police, who alleged that Mr. Hindustani was the “master orchestrator,” of the scam, told the judge that he was confronted with bureaucrat S.P. Gupta, and that the Joint Commissioner (Crime) had interrogated him “at length.”
However, defence counsel Anand claimed that his client was not “interrogated at all” during the one-day custody granted by the court. “This is just eyewash. When I went to the Crime Branch office to be present along with my client for questioning, the police told me no interrogation had taken place. They have nothing on record. No statement or disclosures from my client. If the interrogation was not necessary, why was the remand taken?”
When the police insisted that interrogation was done, Mr. Anand reminded them of Thursday's court order allowing lawyers to be present during custodial interrogation of their clients.
“Either interrogation was not done, or it was done violating the court's order allowing a lawyer to be present,” Mr. Anand said.
Counsel for Mr. Hindustani and Mr. Saxena asked the court to direct the police to conduct a “fair investigation.”
