Abhay Chudasama sent to judicial custody

Judge VB Barot of the special CBI court on Wednesday refused the CBI’s plea for extension of IPS officer Abhay Chudasama’s custody by seven days, and remanded the police officer in judicial custody. Chudasama has been sent to Sabarmati central jail.The probe agency had arrested Chudasama on April 28, 2010, in connection with the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case. The following day, the special CBI court had granted the agency custody of the police officer till May 5. Chudasama is accused of running an extortion racket with the gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh and later conspiring to kill the criminal for material gain.On Wednesday, there was pandemonium at the special CBI court when the probe agency produced the accused police officer for extension of his custody. CBI counsel LD Tiwary argued that the probe agency had interrogated Chudasama while he was in their custody. But as the police officer had refused to cooperate with the CBI, the probe agency still needed him in its custody to investigate the larger conspiracy,  Tiwary said.

The CBI counsel further stated that the probe agency had recovered huge amounts of ‘extortion money’ during its search operations at various places.    Chudasama’s lawyer HM Dhruv opposed the CBI’s demand saying that the probe agency was not conducting the probe in the right direction. “Is this the investigation of an extortion case or an encounter case? I fail to understand,” he said. The judge, after hearing arguments from both sides, rejected the CBI’s application for further remand and forwarded Chudasama to judicial custody. Chudasama’s counsel, Rohit Verma, later said that the court had rejected the CBI application on ground that reason cited for remand is repetition of the grounds on which the CBI had first sought Chudasama’s custody.