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Varun case: Upbeat UP police to go all out

By Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow
June 21, 2009 16:13 IST

Having received the forensic science laboratory report on the recordings of Varun Gandhi's hate speeches during his election campaign in Pilibhit , the Uttar Pradesh police were determined to cut down any further delay in  proceeding against the newly elected Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP  in each of the three criminal cases pending  against him for those speeches he delivered during his election campaign in  Pilibhit parliamentary constituency at the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

Even as the Chandigarh-based Forensic Science Laboratory on Sunday confirmed that the three CDs with recordings from Varun Gandhi's communally charged speeches bore the same voice, the criminal charge of inciting communal passions was yet to be formally substantiated because he had refused to give his voice sample to investigating authorities in Pilibhit.

Disclosing this, a top Uttar Pradesh police official told this scribe here, "we had sent three recordings of now Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Varun Gandhi's speeches to the Chandigarh-based Forensic Science
Laboratory ; and since they have confirmed that the voice in the recordings belonged to one and the same person , there is no reason to doubt that it is anybody other than Varun Gandhi ; it is only a matter of formality that his voice sample is matched with that in the recordings."

He said, "Since there were video recordings too, there was no escape route for Varun, who had apparently adopted this delaying tactics by refusing to give his voice sample every time he was approached by the investigating officer."

The official refuted media reports , claiming that contradictory reports had been filed by the laboratories in Chandigarh and in
Hyderabad.

"We had sent the voice recordings for test only to Chandigarh , so I do not know how some TV channels have been talking about involvement of the Hyderabad forensic lab," he wondered. According to the Pilibhit police, three criminal cases were registered against Varun. While the first one, relating to the anti-Muslim speech he delivered at a public rally in Barkhera village of Pilibhit district on March 8, was registered on Match 17 , the second case was registered over the same incident at the behest of the Election Commission which took serious cognizance of that very speech. Yet another hate speech delivered by Varun Gandhi at Desh Nagar locality of Pilibhit town on March 7 was registered on March 19.

Three evidence exhibits sent to the forensic lab for analysis included a compact disk, a mini video cassette that was recorded at Barkhera and a microchip, which contained a voice recording from Desh Nagar.

The Pilibhit police are likely to move the state government in order to file a chargesheet against Varun in court. The FSL report is second evidence against Varun. In addition to an array of evidence, the police also has aquired affidavits and recorded statements of 20 people. A total of six FIRs have been filed in Pilibhit against Varun Gandhi, who was currently out on bail.

Sharat Pradhan in Lucknow

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