Delhi High Court issues notice in bail plea filed by wrestler Sushil Kumar in assault and murder case

The Delhi High Court on Friday issued notice on the bail application filed by Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar in the Chhatrasal Stadium assault and murder case..Notice was issued by Justice Mukta Gupta, who fixed the matter for hearing on March 28..Kumar and his associates allegedly attacked wrestler Sagar Dhankar over a property dispute in May last year. As a result of the alleged assault, Dhankar passed away on the same day. Kumar and others were booked under Sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, among other charges. He was arrested on May 23 last year and has since been in custody..In his plea before the High Court, Kumar stated that the first information report (FIR) registered against him is a conjoint mix of assumptions, presumptions and malafide intentions. This is apparent from the fact that there was a delay in registration of FIR, he claimed.The plea stated that despite the fact that the chargesheet reported 4 injured and 15 eyewitnesses to the alleged incident, the FIR was registered on the DD entry after an inordinate delay of 16 hours."It is trite law that inordinate delay in the registration of the FIR casts a cloud of suspicion on the credibility of the entire warp and woof of the prosecution story...The said delay was used to concoct a false and frivolous story. The investigating Agency in order to build a false case against the present petitioner, deliberately withheld the statement of the witnesses/victims namely Amit, Bhagat Singh @ Bhagtu and Ravinder which were recorded for the first time on 06.05.2021, 08.05.2021 and 08.05.2021 respectively," he stated in the bail application..Further, it was claimed that the statements of the injured persons are marred by improvements and contradictions and that the investigating agency kept on improving its case merely to implicate Kumar.The delay in recording statements of witnesses led to the conclusion that the prosecution story was conceived and constructed after a good deal of "deliberation and delay in a shady setting, highly redolent of doubt and suspicion," the plea stated..It is claimed that the investigating agency relied upon a purported video recording of the alleged incident. However, despite completion of the investigation, the agency has failed to demonstrate the manner in which said footage was prepared."The investigating agency at the far end of the investigation cropped up a new version that the deceased purportedly had given a dying declaration to the police officials with an aim to add bite to otherwise toothless case of the prosecution," Kumar claimed..In October 2021, a Delhi Court rejected Kumar's bail. Additional Sessions Judge Shivaji Anand "accepted" the submission of the public prosecutor with regards to Kumar being a renowned wrestler who had won laurels for himself. However, the judge held that when someone like him allegedly commits a heinous offence, the detrimental effect on the society was enormous..Delhi court rejects wrestler Sushil Kumar's bail in murder case [Read Order]