M A I N   N E W S

CFSL confirms weapons
Phoolan’s murder
Tribune News Service and PTI

New Delhi, August 4
The two country-made guns recovered from the garage of the Ashoka Road residence of Samajwadi Party MP Phoolan Devi were the ones used in her slaying, the report of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) has concluded.

The two guns were recovered several days after the murder as these had been allegedly picked up by Keshav Chauhan, a party worker, immediately after the daylight shooting and hidden in the garage. Keshav has since been arrested for tampering with evidence.

The guns were apparently discarded by the suspects near the gate of the Ashoka Road residence after gunning down Phoolan Devi and injuring her personal security officer (PSO) soon after she was dropped there on the afternoon of July 25 by another MP.

The two other weapons which were found in the green Maruti car abandoned by the suspects on Pandit Pant Marg were apparently kept as a backup in case of an emergency.

The police said investigations were moving in the right direction with the recovery of the murder weapons though it was yet to establish the motive behind the sensational killing.

The police is also in constant touch with the Uttaranchal police and is checking the records of the Hardwar district jail to ascertain if the three suspects, Ravinder, Rajbir and Shekhar, who were arrested from Saharanpur, were actually interned there on the day of the crime or were represented by proxies like in the case of the prime suspect Pankaj, alias Sher Singh Rana.

If these also turn out to be proxy cases, then who were the alleged accomplices involved in the killing, is a question being asked in the police and political circles here.

Senior police officers admitted that the situation was unclear at present as the suspects had meticulously weaved a web of deceipt around the entire incident to confound the police.

“It is obvious that the daylight murder of Phoolan Devi was very well planned taking into consideration the legal loopholes. It appears that the suspects had the help of some experts familiar with law and police procedure”, a senior police officer monitoring the case said.

The police has already arrested an advocate, Praveen Mittal, whom the suspects had reportedly consulted prior to committing the crime. He along with Amit Rathi were arrested on August 2. They are now in judicial custody for three days. Their statements have been recorded.

Meanwhile, a team of crime branch detectives continued to interrogate Pankaj.

Sources said the suspect was turning out to be a “tough cookie” as he was constantly changing his statements in an apparent bid to confuse the police.

However, considering the importance of the case and the media attention it has attracted every word of his was being checked and rechecked.

Meanwhile, a city court today remanded Keshav Chauhan, Amit Rathi and Praveen Mittal, accused in the Phoolan Devi murder case, to 14 days of judicial custody and dismissed the bail plea of Mittal.

Metropolitan Magistrate Vimal Kumar Yadav remanded the trio — Chauhan, a Samajwadi Party worker from Mirzapur, Rathi, an arms dealer from Roorkee, and Mittal, an advocate, to judicial custody till August 18 accepting the request of public prosecutor Irfan Ahmed.

Meanwhile, the court rejected the bail application of Mittal. On the bail plea of Rathi, the court asked the prosecution to file its reply by August 7.