Jaguar case: Arsalan Parwez gets bail, brother behind bars

KOLKATA:

Arsalan Parwez

(22), who was arrested last Saturday after he surrendered to cops, taking on his elder brother Raghib’s blame, was released on

bail

on Thursday. But the

court

set a condition that he would have to submit his passport to police and meet investigating officer as and when needed.

The police also relieved Arsalan of the initially-slapped non-bailable charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash driving and attempt to commit culpable homicide and booked Raghib under those sections of IPC and Prevention of Damage to Public Property. The court remanded Raghib in 12-day police custody. For his offence of misleading the cops by claiming he was driving the

Jaguar

SUV, which crashed into a Mercedes Benz sedan, though Raghib was at the wheel, Arsalan was booked under the bailable charge of giving false information to screen offender. This can still send him to jail for up to seven years.

Arsalan and Raghib’s maternal uncle, Md Hamza (43), who was arrested for helping Raghib flee to Dubai was also released on bail. He was booked on the charge of harbouring an offender. “The court granted a full-term police custody for Raghib, but rejected our plea for Arsalan and Hamza’s jail custody. But the two can’t leave the country, have to submit their passports to police and appear before investigators whenever asked to. They were released on a personal bail bond of Rs 5,000 each,” said public prosecutor Abhijit Chattopadhyay.

Raghib and Hamza were taken to court around 2pm, around 45 minutes before they were produced in court room. Around five minutes later, Arsalan walked in, went straight to his brother, shook his shoulders and sat beside him as Hamza vacated his place on the bench to make way for Arsalan.

In a black T-shirt with “Godfather” written on it, Arsalan looked casual throughout the 45 minutes in the dock. The argument started with the defence counsel pleading for bail for Arsalan and Hamza but not Raghib. “We pleaded bail for Arsalan and Hamza as police had found out the younger brother was not at the wheel of the Jaguar and their uncle was no way involved with the accident,” said defence counsel Debojyoti Sengupta.

But state counsel Chattopadhyay argued that as Arsalan had shielded Raghib and Hamza harboured him after he committed the crime and also helped him flee to Dubai, the two should be sent to judicial custody. Asking for a police custody for Raghib, Chattopadhyay said cops had CCTV images of him driving out of their home in the Jaguar and that his was the last mobile number logged into the SUV’s system. .

At the end the argument, chief metropolitan magistrate Dipanjan Sen remanded Raghib in police custody till September 3, and granted conditional bail to Arsalan and Hamza.

“We are happy with the order. Arsalan, who was innocent, has been released. We will now fight for the elder brother. We know he has committed a crime but after all, it was an accident. We have faith in the judiciary,” said a relative, Md Mustafa, even as they left the court, shielding Arsalan from reporters.


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