KOLKATA: An Alipore court on Monday turned down BJP member Rakesh Singh’s bail plea after police told the court that his aides may be involved in framing the party’s Yuva Morcha member Pamela Goswami and her friend Prabir Kumar Dey. Singh refuted this as a “concocted story by police”, while alleging he was being “framed-up”.
Police said the arrest of Suraj Kumar Shah on Sunday has led to several revelations. The court remanded Singh, and the other accused Shah, to police custody till March 9.
Goswami had on several occasions claimed that the cocaine was “planted in her car” as part of a larger conspiracy. She had accused Singh for this, a charge which he has denied.
Police said there were five persons in the car which had reached New Alipore on February 20. They were Goswami, her friend, Dey and her security guard Somnath Chatterjee. The car driver and a fifth person — Amrit Singh — were also present. They said the driver was the first to step out to take a tea break. They said Amrit told others that he needed to change his jacket. Goswami and two others got out of the car. Amrit was captured on CCTV while stooping down and changing the jacket. After that he stepped out. Police claimed the 90 grams of cocaine was found exactly where Amrit had stooped down.
The public prosecutor said they also have footage showing Amrit travelling in an expensive car on February 18. “This is the same car that was used as a getaway vehicle by Singh when he was arrested a few days later,” claimed a source.
Police said once Amrit was out of the car, he crossed over to the opposite side of the road and escaped riding a scooty that was arranged for him by Shah, who was arrested on Sunday. “Shah was instructed by Rakesh to take a scooty and wait near the place of occurrence. Amrit escaped from the spot on the same scooty with help of Suraj,” said joint CP (crime) Murlidhar Sharma. The scooty has been seized too.