Arora's remand in Vigilance custody extended by 4 days

Having remained in the Vigilance Bureau custody for the past five days, Jalandhar Central Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raman Arora's remand in the VB was further extended by a local court for four more days.

Arora was brought by VB officials in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sushil Bodh where he turned somewhat emotional as he said not just he but even his relatives were being victimised by the investigating agency. The prosecution lawyers sought his remand for another week to which the defence lawyers resisted strongly during arguments that lasted for one hour. Arora had been arrested by the VB on May 23 on the charges of taking graft from owners of under-construction buildings in the city by issuing them fake notices through Assistant Town Planner of the Municipal Corporation Sukhdev Vashisht. Vashisht had been arrested on May 14.

Arora's lawyer Naveen Chadha said the VB lawyer sought the extension of remand on the ground that many new complainants were reporting to the agency daily about the bribe amount sought by Arora and his men.

"We argued that since Arora was already in their custody, the VB could have sought response from the MLA there and then. Or else, there will be cross-examination during the course of hearing and things will become amply clear then. We also argued that these complainants could even be backed by Arora's political opponents and hence it was not a valid ground", he said after the hearing.

The VB's lawyer also made a point that during the course of investigation, it had been pointed out that Arora had extorted money from some building owners. He said, "We need to take Arora to all these buildings for identification of the sites".

The prosecution lawyers also said the VB officials were yet to seek details about the recovered properties, including gold and cash, to which Arora's lawyers said these assets were already declared by Arora in his 2022 affidavit filed ahead of the elections and any further probe on this would be of no use.

Chadha said the VB officials had also nominated his son Rajan Arora, his aide Mahesh Makhija and father-in-law of his daughter Raju Madaan. The trio have also been booked by the VB under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The VB teams have been trying to nab them for the past few days since Arora's arrest on Friday last.