Soumya murder: Police withdraw plea seeking time

In a dramatic U-turn, Delhi Police today withdrew their plea from a court here seeking more time to conclude probe in journalist Soumya Vishwanathan murder case and filed the chargesheet against four accused in the matter.

In a dramatic U-turn, Delhi Police on Friday withdrew their plea from a court here seeking more time to conclude probe in journalist Soumya Vishwanathan murder case and filed the chargesheet against four accused in the matter.

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Police, which had on Thursday approached the court for extension of 30 days more time to conclude the probe, filed the 489-page chargesheet under section 3 of MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crimes Act) against four accused, Ajay Sethi, Baljeet Singh Malik, Amit Shukla and Ajay Kumar.

It, however, did not give any reason for withdrawing the application for more time to conclude the probe.

The development came as a surprise as police in their application had on Thursday said that "in the interest of justice, 30 days more time may kindly be granted to investigating agency to conclude the remaining task and to finalize the probe."

Additional Sessions Judge S K Sarvaria allowed public prosecutor Rajeev Mohan to withdraw the plea and took the chargesheet into the records.

"Now, put up the matter for scrutiny of the chargesheet and further proceedings on July 2," the court said.

The counsel for the accused was taken by surprise as he was prepared to seek bail for them on the ground that police failed to file the chargesheet within 90 days of registering the case under MCOCA.

"Yesterday, police wanted a month's time to conclude the probe on the ground that they had to verify so many new things which have emerged during the probe. Within a few hours, the probe is over and nearly 500-page chargesheet is filed in the court," Amit Kumar, counsel for the accused, said.