NE youth murder case : CBI allowed to quiz 4 accused
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India

New Delhi, March 11 2014 : A Delhi court today allowed CBI to interrogate four persons arrested in connection with the death of 19-year-old Arunachal Pradesh student Nido Tania.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Pritam Singh, remanded accused Farman, Sunder Singh, Pawan and Sunny Uppal to 14 days of judicial custody while asking CBI to quiz them at Tihar jail.

The case was transferred to CBI from Delhi Police for further probe after the victim's parents met Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, demanding speedy justice for Tania.

They had alleged police negligence in the case and also demanded action against the guilty policemen.

After expiry of their earlier remand, the accused were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Veena Rani, who later sent them to ACMM Pritam Singh.

The ACMM court allowed the CBI plea moved by Public Prosecutor Ratan Deep Singh that the accused need to be interrogated afresh.

"CBI is allowed to interrogate the accused, presently in judicial custody," the ACMM said.

The accused were apprehended after relatives of Tania, a BA first year student in a private university, alleged that he had an altercation with some shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar market here on January 29 after they made fun of his hairstyle.

Following the altercation shopkeepers had allegedly thrashed him.

He was brought dead to AIIMS the next day.

CBI is also likely to question Delhi Police officers who responded to the PCR call about the altercation between Tania and the accused to understand the exact sequence of events.

The death of Tania, son of a Congress MLA, evoked angry reactions from people of the northeast living in the national capital who alleged police had failed to protect him.

Police had booked all the four accused under Section 302 (murder) of IPC after the postmortem report revealed that Tania died due to injuries to his head and face caused by a blunt object.

Initially, police had on February 3 arrested three of the accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 .

On February 10, police arrested Sunny and slapped murder charge on all the four accused.

Two minors who also allegedly assaulted Nido are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board here.

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