Death of Delhi constable: Two accused take alibi plea

A Delhi court on Wednesday took note of the plea of two brothers, accused with six others in the case of death of a constable deployed during the protests against the gang-rape incident that they were in a metro train during occurrence of the alleged incident.

Metropolitan Magistrate Navita Kumari sought replies of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Delhi police by Thursday on two pleas of Kailash Joshi and Amit Joshi that CCTV footages of Rithala and Rajiv Chowk Metro stations of December 23, when the violent protests took place in and around India Gate, be preserved.

"Issue notice to the SHO and the DMRC for December 27," the court said.

"I have one request. Two of the accused were travelling in the metro when the incident (protest) happened. Its footage has to be preserved as it is an important evidence," Somnath Bharti, counsel for the accused, said.

Besides the two brothers, six others -- Nafees, Shankar Bisht, Nand Kumar, Shantanu Kumar, Abhishek and Chaman Kumar -- have been made accused for allegedly taking part in protests which later turned violent and in which constable Subash Chand Tomar got injured.

All the accused were granted bail on December 24.

Tomar, however, died later and consequently, accused have been booked under section 302 (murder) of the IPC, said police which has now handed over the probe to its crime branch.

The mass protest at India Gate, against the gang-rape of a 23-year-old girl in a moving bus here, had turned violent on December 23 in which the constable had allegedly received injuries.

Police had claimed that hooligans had taken over the peaceful protest and violence erupted at India Gate in which 78 policemen and 65 protesters were injured. Various PCR vans and DTC buses were also damaged by the violent protesters.

Tomar, who died on Tuesday at RML hospital, was posted at Karawal Nagar police station and was called to help police in maintaining law and order at India Gate during protests on Sunday.

During the hearing today, accused Nafees Ahmad, who was granted bail along with seven others on December 24, told the court that he was unable to find a person who can stand as his surety.

"He (Nafees) is a worker. He is not able to find any person to stand surety for him. Everybody is scared by Delhi police; so nobody is standing as surety for him," his counsel said.

"Why had you (Nafees) come to India Gate? With whom had you come?," the magistrate asked. At this, Nafees told the court that he had gone there to join the protest against the gang-rape incident.

The court then granted him time till December 28 to furnish the surety bond. It also accepted the surety bonds of two other accused Kailash Joshi and brother Amit.

According to the FIR lodged against the eight accused, they indulged in violent protests in which over 20 buses and other government vehicles were damaged by the agitators.

It said Constable Subhash Tomar, who succumbed to his injuries allegedly sustained during the protest, was badly injured in the protest.

The police also alleged in its FIR that 10 rounds of bullet were found missing from a sub-inspector's official pistol, while some agitationists had also snatched two boxes of the tear gas shell from police officials who were preventing them from causing damage at the India Gate.