Alleging false implication of Rattan Lubana, the main accused in the protection money racket in which students of the four elite schools of city were victimised, the defence counsel on Saturday claimed that students were pressured to name Lubana.
Police had booked Lubana, 22, Akhil Bharatiya Janata Party (ABVP) chairman at DAV College, Sector 10, and son of a BJP leader; Amitoz Singh, 26, whose late father was a subinspector in the Punjab police; and Rajveer Singh, 24, son of a UT police constable, on complaint of St John’s School principal Kavita Das in January.
Defence counsel Rabindra Pandit claimed that Lubana who had studied at St John’s School till Class 7 and was expelled on insistence of Kavita Das, who was nursing a grudge against him.
However, Das in her cross examination denied the fact that Lubana ever studied in St John’s.
Denying allegations of having grudge or lodging complaint to cover up mismanagement of the school, Kavita Das said, “The parents and the students had come to me with the complaint and I forwarded it with a covering note to the police.”
Acting on the complaint of Das, police had unravelled the racket in January wherein the accused were arrested for the extorting money from students by running a protection money racket.
{{/usCountry}}Acting on the complaint of Das, police had unravelled the racket in January wherein the accused were arrested for the extorting money from students by running a protection money racket.
{{/usCountry}}The case will now come up for hearing on May 5.
Rattan Lubana, Amitoz Singh and Rajveer Singh are facing trial for extortion in the name of providing protection to some students, and for settling scores with their rivals.
The students, most of them in Classes 9 or 10 and from well-to-do families, are from Strawberry Fields High School and St John’s High School in Sector 26, Vivek High School in Sector 38, and Delhi Public School, Sector 40.