Doon MLA surrenders, sent to six days in police remand

the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) of Panchkula, Bhawna Jain, remanded Doon MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary — wanted in the murder of 24-year-old Hoshiarpur girl Jyoti Kumari — to six days police custody on Tuesday. The MLA surrendered earlier in the morning.

The prosecution had sought a 10-day police remand, but the court ordered that he should be produced in court on January 14.

The police sought his custody on the ground that he was the prime suspect in the case and his involvement in the case had emerged strongly.

According to police officials, the role of the MLA in "sexual" exploitation of the girl is also being looked into. The girl had earlier terminated her pregnancy and police have alleged "..that she was in the company of the MLA" at the time of her murder.

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Panchkula) Virendar Singh, said the MLA would be questioned about the whereabouts of his other accomplices who are absconding.

Police on Monday had announced a reward of Rs 50,000 for the three other accomplices.

The CJM also allowed the plea of the accused asking for the presence of an advocate during his interrogation. Counsel for the accused, A S Sukhija, said: "The court allowed advocate Amandeep Bindra to be present everyday for one hour during police questioning." He said that the advocate will remain present at the time of questioning but will not be purview to the police conversation with the accused.

The police remand of the Doon MLA came only a day after Haryana police announced a cash reward of Rs 2 lakh to anyone "providing information leading to his arrest."

Besides the evidence that cell-phone of the MLA was tracked to the same area where the girl was found murdered in November, police officials also said that his another possible link in the murder is that money was deposited in the account of Jyoti Kumari regularly from Baddi, the home town of MLA. ACP Virendar Singh said that police is waiting for the details of the transactions that have been made into the bank account of the girl at Panchkula.

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