New Delhi: Ashish Pandey, the son of former BSP MP Rakesh Pandey, who went missing after brandishing a pistol at a five-star hotel in Delhi, surrendered at a Delhi court on Thursday and was remanded to one day in police custody.
Pandey moved an application at the Patiala House Court in Delhi, asking it to direct the police to take him into custody in the “interest of justice". He was caught on camera pulling out a pistol at south Delhi's Hyatt Regency hotel early on Sunday to allegedly threaten Gaurav Kanwar, son of a former Congress MLA, and a woman companion.
Before surrendering, he released a video message saying that has been “framed" and subjected to a media trial. Claiming that he was the victim in the situation, he said that he was only being hounded because he is the son of a politician.
"Being a politician's son is not a crime. I have no cases against me. I have the weapon since last 20 years. I will surrender and I want the media to see what exactly happened in the CCTV cameras of the hotel," he said.
He said that if the footage of the entire night gets reviewed, one would see that he was given death threats by Kanwar. He even claimed that he never brandished the gun. "It was hanging behind me all the time," he claimed, adding that he also did not threaten the woman with Kanwar.
Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police teams had raided several places on Wednesday in pursuit of the politician's son and questioned over 50 people, including the father and uncle of the accused and some employees of the hotel, as to why they did not inform them about the incident on Sunday.
The police learnt about the incident only on Monday, after a video of it went viral, and contacted the hotel authorities, who then filed a complaint. An officer of the UP police said Pandey, a realtor from Lucknow, held licences for three firearms, which had now been suspended.
Kanwar has said in his statement to the Delhi Police that Pandey had pulled out his gun and shouted "I will kill you", which had "scared" him to the extent that he did not approach them.
A video of the incident went viral on the social media, triggering a massive public outrage and prompting the Delhi Police to step in and launch a hunt for Pandey, who has since been untraceable.
In the video, Pandey is seen in a confrontation with two other guests at the foyer of the hotel. An officer of the Delhi police said the three women, who were accompanying Pandey and were involved in triggering the incident, were yet to be identified, but it was known that they were currently abroad.
Comments
0 comment