‘Police mentally harassing MLA’

NEW DELHI: The counsel for former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda on Saturday accused Delhi Police of “mentally harassing” his client. He said senior police officials like the deputy commissioner and the assistant commissioner were also coming and questioning Kanda.
Moving an application before the court of additional chief metropolitan magistrate Devender Kumar Jangala, senior advocate Ramesh Gupta said police were not maintaining a proper record of the interrogation in the case diary and Kanda was being interrogated not only by the investigating officer but also other officials.“In police custody, they are asking obnoxious questions from me (Kanda). I have been grilled by DCP, ACP, SHO and other officials, but according to the law nobody except the IO can question me,” Gupta said on behalf of his client.
Gupta also alleged that despite the court’s order, which allowed the counsel of the accused to meet him in police custody, the DCP made them wait for two-and-a-half hours.
The court asked the prosecution whether other police had the right to interrogate the accused. Later, in its order, the court said, “The IO is directed to mention the name of any other police official who interrogates the accused during his remand period, in the case diary.”
During the hearing, Gupta opposed the plea for extension of Kanda’s police custody, saying police had not brought any new evidence to show that Kanda abetted Geetika Sharma’s suicide. Gupta blamed the police for leaking details of Geetika’s postmortem report to the media. “Who is responsible for that,” he asked.