The almost three-hour-long wait finally ended at around 5 pm when Tony and Alok stepped out of the police Gypsies, their faces covered by towels. Anxious relatives, engaged in whispering into their cellphones and guzzling chilled bottles of mineral water, immediately dropped their preoccupations to follow the posse of policemen escorting the two to the court of Metropolitan Magistrate V K Khanna. Mediapersons, busy exchanging gossip about the the rich and famous, also got their act together and rushed to take positions inside the small and cramped courtroom.

Heaving a sigh of relief, defence counsel I U Khan, who had also been waiting for more than two hours, immediately swung into action. Brushing everyone aside, Khan leaned towards his two clients and took charge ofthe situation. ``Uncover your faces,'' he instructed the two men even as police officials accompanying the two looked at each other before one of them finally instructed them to cover their faces again.

As the men started covering their faces again, Khan asked them to refrain and told the police officials in no uncertain terms that it was not required as they had been seen in and outside the police station by everyone. While the helpless police officials looked on, Khan once again leaned closer to his clients and started whispering instructions.

``If they ask you that you can help the police in tracing Manu Sharma, tell them that you can't. Also say that you were forced to make these statements by the police,'' he directed his clients, who kept darting confused looks alternately towards the police and their lawyer.

The entire proceeding, which culminated into the two being remanded to judicial custody for a day, took around 15 minutes from start to finish. The unexpected verdict (relatives of both theaccused had been assured by their lawyer that they would be granted bail today), brought Alok's mother to tears.

The two families then saw the two accused till the gate, following it up with a whispered conference with Khan. While Tony's relatives refused to comment and stayed away from mediapersons, Alok's parents broke their silence and told everyone who cared to listen what they thought about the police, the Ramanis and Manu Sharma.

``The police has purposely produced him after 5 pm so that they are not able to get bail. While the actual accused roams around scot free, my son has been put in custody,'' fumed the mother of Alok. ``What was his fault? If someone comes to your house after having killed someone, what do you do? Even if you know that they have a gun in their pocket, what can you do? My son neither owned a gun, nor did he kill anyone. If he had done anything wrong, I would have myself handed him over to the police,'' his parents fumed.

They said that their son had been picked up by thepolice for questioning at 3.30 pm on Tuesday. ``They assured us that it would take only a couple of hours. We kept waiting and calling and they said that there was nothing to worry and our son was not to blame. Then suddenly at 2.30 am today they said that they were arresting him and Tony,'' said his mother.

She said that the police had told them Tuesday that they were being charged with bailable offence and they were assured that their son would be able to go back home with them today. ``I left the police station at around 2.30 pm when they told me that they were ready to take them to court. It took me half-an-hour to reach the courts and it took them nearly two-and-a-half-hours to cover the same distance. They have deliberately brought both these boys at 5 pm, so that they don't get bail. There was no time for arguments otherwise the judge would have granted them bail,'' said his mother.