A local court here on Thursday remanded the four accused in the Junaid murder case to two days’ police custody. All four were arrested early on Wednesday from their houses at Khambi village in Palwal.
The four were produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate Poorva Mehra in Sector 12 here around noon and were remanded in police custody till July 1 after the Haryana Railway Police sought their custody to recover blood-stained clothes and other incriminating material. The police also pleaded before the court that Rameshwar Sharma (50), a Delhi government employee accused of having started the argument, could be instrumental in the identification of the prime accused, who is yet to be arrested. However, the police claimed that they had vital leads and he would be arrested soon.
Returning after shopping
Besides Rameshwar, who works in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the remaining three have been identified as Chander Prakash (25), Gaurav (25) and Pradeep Kumar (29). While Chander is an accountant at a factory in Ballabgarh, Gaurav works with a private company in the same area. Pradeep is an engineer from a private university in Faridabad and also holds an MBA degree through distance education.
According to the police, Rameshwar boarded the train at Okhla railway station in Delhi on June 22 evening and started an argument with Junaid and his friends, who were returning from Sadar Bazar after Id shopping. The argument was over a seat and Rameshwar also hurled religious slurs at them. While Chander and Gaurav boarded the train at Ballabgarh, Pradeep took the train at New Town railway station in Faridabad and the trio also got embroiled in the argument which culminated in the stabbing of Junaid.
‘Falsely implicated’
Briefing media persons on court proceedings, Defence counsel Joginder Singh Chauhan alleged that his clients were being falsely implicated in the case.
He also refused the Test Identification Parade of the accused, arguing that the police had already revealed the identities of his clients to the victim's family. “Soon after the arrest, the police had called the victim's family to the police station for identification of the accused and revealed their identity to them. So we turned down the request for TIP. However, we are ready to co-operate with the police in the probe,” said Mr. Chauhan.
