Ashish concealed material facts in bail plea, prosecution tells court

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 17

In its reply to Ashish Kumar’s bail application, the prosecution in the Varnika Kundu stalking case has told the court that Kumar has concealed material facts. The reply says that while Kumar has been denied bail twice by the court, his bail application mentions that it has been turned down only once.

The reply also says that Kumar is already facing an abetment-to-suicide case in Hisar. It also says that Kumar ‘failed to consider humanity, respect to woman and acted like a beast in lust’. It adds that Kumar has committed a heinous crime and behaved like a roadside romeo.

The abetment-to-suicide case pertains to June, 2017, wherein Kumar and three others have been accused of harassing the deceased. The deceased had lent the accused a huge amount of money, including Rs 14.85 lakh to Kumar. However, the accused did not return the money and were harassing the deceased. The deceased consumed poison and left behind a suicide note blaming the four accused and also told his father about the same.

The arguments over the bail application will be held on Thursday and the order is also expected on the same day. Ashish Kumar’s accomplice in the case, Vikas Barala, has already been granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Kumar’s bail plea had stated that Barala has already been released on bail and thus keeping him in custody served no purpose any longer. The bail application also stated that cross-examination of Varnika was over and that she failed to mention kidnapping in her initial complaint thereby alleging the concocted nature of the FIR. The police failing to supply CCTV footage, media coverage of the case and presence of a lawyer during filing of the FIR were other factors mentioned in the application.

Vikas and Ashish had allegedly followed Varnika’s car and tried to abduct her post-midnight in August last year. The girl called the police and the boys were nabbed.