Delhi Police take custody of Kotkapura undertrial to probe plot to kill Kashmiri activist

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, March 3

A Delhi Police team has taken custody of Prince alias Tuti, an undertrial at Central Jail here.

Tuti had allegedly hired two youths of Kotkapura to kill human rights activist Sushil Pandit.

Three days after arresting Sukhvinder Singh and Lakhan, both residents of Kotkapura, Delhi Police have also named Tuti as an accused in the case.

Facing two criminal cases, including a murder case, Tuti is lodged in jail here. To get the production warrant of Tuti in the Delhi case, a team of Delhi Police reached the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class here and got his custody till March 16.

According to Delhi Police, Sukhvinder and Lakhan had revealed during questioning that they were hired by Tuti to kill Pandit and promised Rs 10 lakh each.

Two days back, the Faridkot police had recovered a mobile phone from Tuti during a search in the jail here. Delhi Police claimed that Tuti was operating from the jail using the mobile phones.

Sushil Pandit hails from Kashmir and is an activist advocating the rights of Kashmiri Pandits.

For the alleged planning to kill him, Delhi Police had arrested the Kotkapura youths from RK Puram with four firearms, four cartridges and a cellphone that contained a photograph of Pandit’s.

Officials in Delhi Police said while they had failed to establish any rivalry between Tuti and Pandit after questioning the latter, they wanted to question Tuti to verify the disclosures made by the two regarding him and the reason for his hiring them for Pandit’s killing.