Delhi Court Sends Vijay Nair to CBI Custody till October 6

New Delhi, 4 October 2022: Delhi court has ordered the extended CBI custody of Vijay Nair, AAP’s communication coordinator till October 6 with regard to the Delhi’s excise policy case on Monday.

This came after CBI, represented by Senior Public Prosecutor Pankaj Gupta appealed to the court for an additional four days of custody, claiming that Nair was “not cooperating with the inquiry” and needed to be shown proof to “prove the role of other accused in this case.”

Special judge Raghubir Singh questioned about the need for custody. He asked, “Why do you need his custody for four more days? What have you done in five days? You only took him to one place in Delhi. What is the guarantee that he will further coperate with the investigation?”

The advocate informed the court that the probe was at a critical point and that the agency has questioned Nair in front of more witnesses in this matter. While Ramesh Gupta, a senior attorney representing Nair, vehemently contested the CBI’s request for custody, arguing that the agency had made the same remand reasons in both previous requests too.

Simultaneously, SPP Gupta said to the court that he agreed with the natural justice arguments brought forward by Nair’s attorneys and stated that they were doing all possible to look into the situation.

We are aware that asking for police custody should never be necessary. We are unable to investigate in 10 days. We are unable to use a magic wand, he reasoned.

Gupta further argued in the court that, he was called seven times and constantly showed up. He was detained on the grounds that he was not complying.

Additionally, he claimed that the case diary for this instance was not paginated. According to Gupta, when dealing with remand, the judge must adopt a “human attitude.”

He informed the court that additional custody could only be granted if the agency was unable to perform additional investigation. “This is a business offense; why arrest? You may have contacted me to look into it. This was done to harass and degrade me. Although Nair was not mistreated while in detention, police custody is abusive. Torture is also a humiliation,” Gupta argued.