A Delhi court has denied bail application of a man arrested in connection with the brutal murder of an auto driver, Babbu, by an unruly mob during the north-east Delhi riots.
Additional Sessions Judge Vinod Yadav said, the accused was “conscious of the fact that eyewitnesses in the matter are residents of the same locality; they are presumably still frightened and the possibility of applicant threatening them, if released on bail cannot be ruled out”.
“I am conscious of the fact that some co-accused persons have been granted bail in this case. However, it is noted that they were those accused persons who had not been identified by any independent eyewitness, except the police constable,” the judge said.
The court added that the bail applications of around 11 accused persons have already been dismissed by it on different dates and the role assigned to Kuldeep Singh in the matter is no different to those co-accused persons.
Sole breadwinner
Mr. Singh, in his bail plea, had argued that he was 28-year-old and the sole breadwinner of his family.
Mr. Singh said he has been falsely implicated in the present matter by the investigating agency and has been in judicial custody since March 30. His plea said he has not been specifically named in the FIR and that he was arrested merely on the basis of disclosure statement of co-accused.
Mr. Singh also said he is not seen in any CCTV footage or clipping. He further contended that the statement of independent public witness and that of police constable witnesses are contradictory to each other.
He said the public witness in his alleged statement has stated that Mr. Singh was carrying a “lathi/danda” in his hand while the police witnesses stated that Mr. Singh was carrying “stones” in his hand. On the other hand, the special public prosecutor (SPP) vehemently argued against the bail application saying that a video footage showing the incident of murder of deceased Babbu was captured by BBC News.
The SPP said the investigating officer of the case has already written to BBC News to provide them video footage. The SPP also contended that Mr. Singh is resident of same locality where the independent eyewitnesses reside and there is every possibility that if he is released on bail at this stage, then he shall threaten the witnesses.
The SPP said Mr. Singh has been categorically identified by the public witnesses to be part of the riotous mob that had caught hold of deceased Babbu on the date of incident and beating him black and blue with stick/laathi, which ultimately resulted in his death.
Mr. Singh has also refused to take part in judicial “Test Identification Parade” (TIP) and as such, an adverse inference is liable to be drawn against him, the SPP said.
The court refused the bail and said that the contradictions pointed out by Mr. Singh in the statement of public witnesses and police constable will be seen at the time of trial.
