New Delhi
A city court on Thursday remanded M L Gautam to eight days’ police custody after observing that his custodial interrogation was imperative for the unearthing of the alleged conspiracy. The EOW told the court it wanted to confront him with Laxmi Narayan Meena and Deepak Kumar, already in custody. “The accused has revealed in his disclosure that he has played a vital role in the conspiracy of filling applications in the reserved category. He played a vital role in providing funds to Deepak Kumar,” the remand paper stated. The remand application was opposed by Gautam’s counsel, who claimed that he was willing to cooperate in the probe and that the EOW’s contentions were not justified. After perusing the file, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Digvinay Singh observed: “This (recovery of documents) clearly indicates the involvement of the accused, who was a former employee of the DDA. His custodial interrogation is necessary for a comprehensive probe, as other documents are also to be recovered,” the court observed. Property dealer Raju Ram, who was arrested on Thursday on the basis of a disclosure statement by Deepak Kumar, was also remanded to police custody till January 17 by the duty magistrate. As per the EOW, the realtor had provided Rs 9 lakh to Deepak Kumar for 150 application forms, and after the draw, Kumar returned the money through two cheques of Rs 4.5 lakh each.
