While police officials claimed that the case papers had been sent to a government advocate in Gandhinagar, impeding the filing of the chargesheet, the lapse means that the accused, who are currently in judicial custody, can now apply for a bail. The Surat District Bar Association, meanwhile, claimed that it had warned the police about the outcome if the chargesheet was not filed.

Meanwhile, Kahar, who was supposed to make a confession before Joint Civil Judge N K Parikh on Tuesday, said that he had not filed an application for a confession and that he had nothing new to confess. A confession could have been used as evidence by the police in the case. Kahar was later sent back to judicial custody.

It may be noted that just a week ago, Chief Judicial Magistrate B R Vyas had rejected a DCB application requesting for an extension of another 60 days to file a chargesheet in the case.

While DCB PI R G Kaneriya had contended that the chargesheet period should be extended by a couple of months as more arrests had to be made, the CJM ruled that the accused had been interrogated adequately -- which included a lie detection and narco analysis test -- when they were remanded to DCB custody. The judge also asked the DCB to file a chargesheet against the accused within the stipulated 90-day period.