Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar has moved court seeking bail in the Chhatrasal Stadium murder case. The wrestler’s camp claim that the police built a false case and presented a "guilty image" of him. The wrestler further told the court that he has clean antecedents and has never violated any law.
Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand will hear the bail plea on Tuesday.
Sushil, along with others had allegedly assaulted former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar and his friends at the stadium in May over an alleged property dispute. Dhankar later succumbed to the injuries.
The Delhi Police had filed an FIR against the accused of offences such as murder, attempt to murder, culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, rioting, among others.
Advocate Nitin Vasishth, appearing for the victim and complainant Sonu, said that Kumar should not be released on bail as more accused are yet to be arrested and they, along with Kumar, may influence the witnesses, PTI reported.
In the bail plea, he has said that the "unfortunate demise" of a budding wrestler was sensationalized and the same was exploited against him by parties with a vested interest.
Sushil reportedly also claimed in the plea that the police left no stone unturned to present a “false and guilty image” of him and fed false information to the media to wrongfully establish a connection between him and renowned gangsters.
“They had even gone to the point of painting a grotesque image of the present accused where he was said to be a gangster himself and even questions were raised against his antecedents,” Kumar said in a 16-pages bail plea.
However, after filing the charge sheet, all the claims and leaks made by the investigating agency are untrue and without any footing in the reality, the plea filed through advocate Pradeep Rana said.
He further stated that the FIR was filed after a delay, and statements of witnesses were marred by improvements and contractions, and were deliberately withheld by the investigating agency to build a "false case".
“The investigating agency at the fag end of the investigation cropped up a new version that the deceased had given a dying declaration to the police officials with an aim to add bite to the otherwise toothless case of the prosecution,” Kumar submitted.
He also called the FIR a conjoint mix of "assumption, presumption, and malafide intentions", adding that the police arrested him in the absence of concrete evidence.
The wrestler further said that he is no more required for any custodial interrogation, much less for any recovery or discovery of incriminating material as the charge sheet has been filed which shows that the probe against him is over.
Kumar said that nothing incriminating has been recovered from him which further corroborates his innocence but the investigating agency in order to build a case against him has attributed certain vehicles and weapons to him.
(With PTI Inputs)
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)