In a press note issued today, Senior Superintendent of the Police C.S.R. Reddy stated that the cash recovered from the accused had been deposited in the malkhana. He also denied charges of manhandling the accused and not informing the British High Commission at New Delhi regarding their arrest.

The Chandigarh Police had arrested the trio on December 1. While Samuel Allen had been booked under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, Tobias Nenning and Alexander Lawson had been apprehended under the Arms Act.

The SSP claimed today that, according to an enquiry into the allegations, Rs 23,086, besides US dollars, pounds and traveller cheques, taken into possession from the accused, had been deposited against proper record. He added that the High Commission had been informed "well in time" through telegrams. Terming allegations of manhandling and misbehaving with the accused as "false and baseless", the SSP also claimed that the trio were medically examined at the Sector 16 General Hospital.

Refuting the allegations of the accused not being frisked by a gazetted officer, he asserted that they were searched in the presence of Sub Divisional Police Officer (Central).