The Chandigarh Police have been under heavy criticism after Vikas Barala and Ashish Kumar, the two accused in the case of stalking Varnika Kundu in their SUV while she was driving home, were given bail within hours of the complaint.
As the first video above shows, the police had initially planned a range of charges against Barala, who is the BJP’s Haryana president Subhash Barala’s son, and Kumar. In an initial briefing, DSP Satish Kumar said that the charges under IPC Sections 365 and 511 on the accused were non-bailable.
But just a few hours later, the DSP’s tale had changed. In the second video above, also taken during a press briefing, he said that the accused were charged with IPC Sections 354(D), 341(B) and Section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act, but did not mention the two previous charges (IPC Sections 365 and 511).
It was only when someone in the room asked him why the police had decided to eliminate those charges that the DSP explained that the decision was made based on the complainant’s recorded statement. “The statement did not explicitly mention anywhere that the complainant felt that her attackers might kidnap her. We are conducting the investigating strictly based on the complainant’s statement,” he said, adding that they would consider legal opinion before proceeding further.
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