Rs 14-cr heist: Rajnish’s counsel defends his anticipatory bail

Tribune News Service

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Chandigarh, May 23

The counsel of accused Rajnish Verma today told a local court that the bills of jewellery bought by the co-owners of Forever Diamonds in Sector 17, where the alleged robbery took place, were not fake. He also defended the anticipatory bail to Rajnish.

The defence advocate said the bills of jewellery worth Rs 2.5 crore, which were shown as fake by the police, were actually approval vouchers. The vouchers were issued as a temporary payment receipt by one of their known ones. The jewellery worth Rs 5 crore, which was bought by the co-owners, was reflected even in the income tax return.

However, the police said they had to recover jewellery from them for which Rajnish’s arrest was required. On this, his counsel contended that it was his own jewellery, so why the police want to recover that.

The court has deferred the matter for tomorrow. Rajnish has been absconding since he was booked in a cheating case by the police.

Co-owner of the shop, Vinod Verma, who was also booked in this case for allegedly stage managing a robbery, had already been sent to a 14-day judicial remand.

Three other accomplices - Vaibhav Verma, a resident of Sector 49, Ankur (22), a resident of Zirakpur, and Shivani, a sales girl at the same shop, who were allegedly part of the conspiracy - had already been arrested. They were allegedly involved in enacting the robbery drama to make it look real.