Barala denied bail, yet again

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 12

While stating that the accused behaved like a “roadside romeo”, the court of Additional Sessions Judge Rajnish Kumar Sharma took a tough stance against Vikas Barala. The court dismissed his bail plea yet again in the stalking case involving 29-year-old DJ Varnika Kundu.

The court observed that the accused followed the victim continuously, tried to block her path and were not allowing her to go with a “determination to gratify their passion at all events”. The Judge also denied the possibility of any animosity between the complainant and the accused as per facts placed on record. The Judge observed that it was a heinous crime and that the accused were “dead drunk” at the time of the incident.

The order says that considering the conditions prevailing in society, the modesty of women needs to be strongly guarded. It also says that as more and more women venture out for education and work, their protection is of extreme importance to a civilised and cultured society. “The experience of women and girl children in crowded buses and Metro trains is horrendous and a painful ordeal,” it further reads.

The order says that there is no straight-jacket formula for granting bail as each case is different in terms of circumstances and facts. Hence, the accused being in jail for a long time is no ground for bail, as claimed by the defence. “The culpable intention of the accused is the crux of the matter,” the order further reads.

The bail application had alleged that the father of the complainant had typed the complaint himself in the police station. However, the prosecution presented the complaint in court which was handwritten. The plea had also said that Barala was a law graduate and being in jail with hardcore criminals would hurt his career. However, the prosecution argued that drunk driving was irresponsible behaviour by a law graduate.

The Kundus had written to the UT DGP for providing security to the family, a prosecution counsel informed. He said they had showed lack of trust in junior police employees and asked the DGP to form a SIT under a senior officer after which the same was done under DSP Satish Kumar.