Sex CD case: Sandeep sent to judicial custody

Sacked Delhi Minister and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Sandeep Kumar, arrested on rape charges on the complaint of a woman, was on Friday sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court here.

Special Judge Poonam Chaudhry remanded 36-year-old Kumar to judicial custody till September 23 after the Delhi Police submitted he was not required for custodial interrogation.

Police sought judicial custody of the MLA, who was produced before the court on expiry of his one-day police remand, to conduct fair investigation and prevent the accused from tampering with evidence.

The police, which had on Thursday got extended Kumar’s police custody by a day to recover the original electronic device used for making the alleged objectionable video, said it could not be recovered.

Meanwhile, advocate Pradeep Rana, appearing for Kumar, claimed there was a threat to the MLA’s life in jail and he should be provided special armed guards and a separate cell during judicial custody.

To this, the court forwarded the application to the jail superintendent directing him to consider it as per the prison manual. During the hearing, the police responded to another plea moved by the defence counsel alleging that he was illegally arrested and the probe agency had not given any ground for doing so. 

The police said Kumar was arrested on the basis of incriminating evidence collected against him. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been directed by a special court to immediately block internet links of the alleged objectionable videos purportedly showing Sandeep Kumar with a woman, who has accused him of raping her.

The court’s order came as it allowed a plea of Delhi Police seeking direction to the director of CERT to block and remove objectionable video clips and links from youtube. “In view of submissions made, direction is issued to the Director of Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India... to block/remove the above said links with immediate effect and compliance report be submitted ... to the investigating officer (IO),” the judge said.