Chandigarh: Vikas Barala, son of Haryana BJP chief and the main accused in the Chandigarh stalking case, finally joined the probe after a 3-hour wait since the summons deadline ended at 11am.
Five days after the incident, police has now slapped abduction charges on Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar. His bail bond, that was furnished by BJP spokesperson Kishan Dhull, has also been cancelled.
Just before his arrival at the Sector 26 police station, BJP chief Subhash Barala told mediapersons that he has asked his son to join the probe and he was on his way towards Chandigarh. He said, "Criminals should be punished even if he is my son. The girl is like my daughter and I have asked my son to join the probe."
The Chandigarh Police on Wednesday said there is sufficient evidence from the CCTV footage that Barala was stalking and chasing the 29-year-old woman on Friday night.
Director General of Police, Tajender Singh Luthra, said, “The accused are law graduates and they know the law. Still they refused to give their urine and blood samples for investigation. If they don’t show up even after receiving the summons, appropriate action will be taken against them.”
Police had issued the summons to Vikas Barala and his friend Ashish Kumar to join the investigation on Tuesday evening. There were initial reports that Vikas was not willing to join the probe.
The other accused, Kumar, is also likely to appear before the police on Wednesday. The two were given time till 11am to respond.
At the same time, police sources said Vikas has come up with the excuse that he was chasing the 29-year-old complainant because he had a bet to find out whether the driver was a woman.
The Chandigarh administration has sent an investigation report to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Police on Tuesday recovered the missing CCTV footage of five key locations in Chandigarh that showed Vikas and his friend chasing the woman in a car. This was a day after the crucial video evidence went missing.
Soon after police said that the recovered footage shows Barala chasing the woman, Subhash Barala said the police is under no pressure and claimed that the victim was “like his daughter”.
The Chandigarh police added that it will not hesitate to add non-bailable provisions in the case, if required.
The 29-year-old daughter of a top bureaucrat in the Haryana government alleged that she was followed by Vikas Barala and his friend on Friday night. Barala’s SUV pulled up close to her car several times in a bid to block her way.
While the woman’s complaint and a Facebook post narrating the incident caused a massive stir, the Haryana BJP unit on Monday blamed the victim for driving “so late in the night.”
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