Haryana stalking case: Vikas, friend sent to judicial custody till Aug 25
Chandigarh: A court in Chandigarh on Saturday sent Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar to judicial custody till August 25.
Amid tight police security, both were presented before the court of duty magistrate Gaurav Dutta.
Defence counsel Surya Prakash said: "both the youths have been sent to 14 days of judicial custody".
On Thursday, both Vikas and Ashish were sent to two-day police custody for stalking 29-year-old Varnika Kundu last week.
Vikas, the son of Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Haryana unit President Subhash Barala, and Kumar were arrested on Thursday when they appeared in Chandigarh Sector 26 Police Station after being summoned in the case.
There was a massive outrage on streets and in the Parliament regarding the incident.
Subhash Barala, however, rebuffed the claim of pressurising or influencing the police in the case.
The defence lawyer had earlier claimed that Vikas and Ashish had not committed any offence and said a "media trial" was going on in the case.
Police arrested the duo after examining the CCTV footage of the incident, saying that they have sufficient evidence against the accused people.
On Friday night, several people in Chandigarh held a march 'Bekhauf Azaadi' in support of the victim, and to raise awareness on the women safety issue.
Director General of Police, Chandigarh, Tajender Singh Luthra said they were arrested on charges of attempt to abduction and IPC 365 and 511 have been filed against them.
The summon was issued to the duo under 160 Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the case has been filed against Barala under Section 354D (stalking), 341 (wrongful restraint), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 185 MV Act (rash driving).
Vikas and Kumar were initially arrested on August 5 on charges of stalking and harassing IAS officer's daughter Varnika Kundu in Chandigarh early that morning. They were, however, granted bail the same day.
Subhash Barala broke his silence on the matter on Tuesday after being mute for over three days and said, Varnika "is like my daughter". He assured action against his son.
