Brothers who thrashed cops sent to judicial custody

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9

A local court today sent two brothers, both working in an IT firm, to judicial custody. The duo has been booked in two separate cases, one of abduction of cops and another of sexual harassment. Sahil Kohli (26) and Saumil Kohli (22), residents of Sector 42, were booked after a video of them fighting with some policemen surfaced on Friday.

The brothers have been booked under Sections 323, 332, 353, 365 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code. Sahil has also been booked under Section 354 on the complaint of a Patiala resident, with whom he allegedly had an affair with and was to get married.

The defence counsel argued that it was actually a case of bribery but had been turned into kidnapping, abduction against the accused. The defence pleaded that the policemen on duty allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from Sahil and Saumil, of which Sahil had a video recording in his phone. To cover up the same, the IT Park police allegedly got into an argument with the accused and thrashed the brothers. The defence counsel pleaded that the video footage, showing the accused thrashing the policemen, actually included policemen in civil dress beating up the accused on Friday, who then retaliated.

The accused also filed a bail application for which court has issued a notice to the police for Monday. They also pleaded that the policemen failed to follow the rules and regulations as they took them to the police station from their office and did not summon them.

The defence counsel filed another application not to destroy Sahil’s mobile phone that was in police custody as they needed data from it.

It has the video, showing the policemen allegedly demanding bribe from the accused. This will also come up for hearing on Monday, along with the bail application.

A sexual harassment case was filed by a girl, who worked at the same IT firm, and she recorded her statement under Section 164 of the CrPC before the duty magistrate today. As per information, she claimed that Sahil proposed to marry her.

It has been alleged that she had even met his family but later refused to marry her.

Things turned ugly after he allegedly used abusive language against her and even tried to tear her clothes.

However, the defence counsel claimed the couple had been in a relationship for about six months and Sahil had sought some more time to take a decision regarding their marriage. It is learnt that various astrologers had told the boy’s family that the girl was ‘manglik’ and Sahil was thus double minded.

The case

• Head constables Shubhkaran and Manoj Kumar of the IT Park police station had gone to probe a sexual harassment complaint against Sahil, an employee of a private company in the IT Park, on Friday evening. 
• The policemen were suspended after they thrashed a senior official of the firm, who has been booked, along with an aide, for kidnapping the policemen as well as molesting the complainant.
• The police asked the accused to come along to join the investigation. However, he refused. 
• Later, Sahil and his brother Saumil reportedly agreed to go to the police station on the condition that they would go in their BMW car. 
• On their way to the police station, the accused brothers allegedly took a detour and took the car to Shastri Nagar in Kishangarh, nearly five kilometers away from the police station.
• The brothers entered into a fight with the policemen. On noticing it, the onlookers informed the police.

On getting information, Deputy Superintendent of the Police (DSP) Satish Kumar reached the spot and both were brought to the police station by the police.