Chandigarh stalking case: Woman was 50 km away an hour before incident occurred, claims defence
The counsel for the accused, Vikas Barala, also alleged that her father had forged her signature in the police complaint.
The counsel for Vikas Barala, who is accused of stalking a woman in Chandigarh in August 2017, on Monday claimed she was in Ropar district – about 50 km away – an hour before the incident occurred, The Indian Express reported.
Vikas Barala, the son of Haryana Bharatiya Janata Party President Subhash Barala, and his friend Kumar were arrested on August 9, 2017, for allegedly stalking and trying to abduct Varnika Kundu, an IAS officer’s daughter, on August 4, 2017. The two allegedly chased Kundu in an SUV while she was driving to Panchkula from Chandigarh. A medical examination found that both men were drunk. Both denied they intended to abduct her.
On August 29, the court denied the duo bail in the case, and in October 2017, it framed charges of abduction against them.
Barala’s counsel Rabindra Pandit made the claim during Kundu’s cross-examination on Monday. She will be questioned again on Tuesday. Pandit claimed that records from mobile tower tracking show that Kundu was in the Chamkaur Sahib tehsil in Ropar district about an hour before the incident occurred in Chandigarh. The woman, however, denied the allegation.
The defence was trying to discredit her testimony by attempting to establish that she was in Ropar an hour before the alleged stalking.
Kundu argued that her car broke down on August 3 and was parked in Chandigarh’s Sector 8. On August 4, Kundu said, her driver had dropped her off at Sector 8 to pick her vehicle around 11.30 pm. Around 12.15 am, when she entered Sector 7 and was driving towards KB DAV School, she realised she was being followed, Kundu said.
Pandit claimed the woman was on the phone for an hour and nine minutes the night of the incident, and that her phone’s location showed her in Chandigarh’s Sector 26 only at 12.26 am. Citing call records Pandit added that she had called “100” only at 12.33 am.
The defence also claimed that Kundu’s father had forged her signature in the police complaint, and that she was not present in the station at all. Kundu denied the forgery allegations and said that a lawyer, Rajdeep Takoria, had accompanied her and her father to the police station.