Vikas BaralaChandigarh, Oct 13 (PTI) A Chandigarh court today chargedVikas Barala, the son of the Haryana BJP chief, and his friendAshish Kumar with stalking and attempting to kidnap a seniorIAS officer's daughter, Varnika Kundu, in a case that hadtriggered widespread outrage and a spate of protests.
The two had chased the 29-year-old disc jockey in theirSUV through the streets of Chandigarh while she was driving toPanchkula on August 5.
The court of the judicial magistrate Barjinder Pal Singhpronounced that all the charges in the FIR have been added inthe charge-sheet filed by the police.
Varnika, who attended the last two hearings, wasn'tpresent when the charges against Vikas and Ashish were framed.
The court adjourned the hearing in the case to October27.
"The charges were framed against Vikas and Ashish undervarious Sections of IPC including 354 d (stalking), 341(wrongful restraint) and 365 read with 511 (attempt tokidnap)," said defence counsel Rabindra Pandit.
The two were arrested on the intervening night ofAugust 4 and 5 following a complaint by the woman but werereleased on bail as they had been booked under bailablesections of the Indian Penal Code and the Motor Vehicles Act.
They were arrested again on August 9 after they joinedthe police investigation and were charged with attemptedabduction under sections 365 and 511 of the IPC.
Last month, the court of Additional District and SessionsJudge Rajnish Kumar Sharma had dismissed the bail plea ofVikas, who had been booked on charges of stalking andattempting to abduct the woman.
The prosecution counsel had earlier told the court thatthe "trauma" for the young woman lasted for nearly half-anhour over a stretch of 5.8 km and it wasn't a one-offincident.
He had opposed the defence's version, wherein theyclaimed that "merely knocking at a car door didn't meankidnapping.""The accused banged the car door and would have managedto succeed had the victim not used her presence of mind andmanaged to use the central locking system," the prosecutionlawyer had told the court.
He had also said the panic-stricken young woman wasforced to drive so fast that she could have even lost herlife.
On August 5, Barala and Kumar had allegedly startedfollowing Kundu in their SUV here at around 12.20 am.
During the 25-minute chase, the SUV pulled up close toher car several times and even tried to block her way, Kunduhad said in her complaint.
"I'm lucky, it seems, to not be the daughter of a commonman, because what chance would they have against such VIPs?I'm also lucky, because I'm not lying raped and murdered in aditch somewhere. If this can happen in Chandigarh, it canhappen anywhere," she earlier wrote in a Facebook post.
Her father, Virender Kundu, is a senior officer with theHaryana government. PTI SUN VSDBSA.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.