Interim bail of AAP legislator Jarnail Singh extended

In a relief to Aam Aadmi Party legislator Jarnail Singh, the Delhi High Court on Monday extended him protection from arrest till July 9 for allegedly assaulting an engineer and preventing him from carrying out his duty.

Justice Sunita Gupta asked police to provide protection to the complainant engineer as and when required, after taking note of the submissions of the probe agency that due to the influence of Jarnail Singh, the engineer was not cooperating in the investigation.

The court was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of Jarnail Singh, the legislator from Tilak Nagar constituency who is also accused of tearing up official documents and threatening to frame South Delhi Municipal Corporation junior engineer Athar Mustafa in a false case of corruption.

A scuffle took place when Mustafa, with his team and policemen, went to bring down an illegal structure in Krishna Park Extension area.

On May 6, the high court granted him protection from arrest.

Appearing for police, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain opposed the bail plea, saying that due to the influence of the legislator, Mustafa was now not cooperating in the investigation and he did not go to the hospital, as a result of which the medico legal certificate could not be obtained.

He said the mobile phones of Jarnail Singh and a man named Amarjeet Singh -- which contain videos of the incident -- were required to be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory.

To this, the court directed the investigation officer to send the mobile phones within three days to the FSL and asked the FSL director to expedite the process.

"It is reiterated that the petitioner shall not contact, coerce, threaten or influence the complainant in any manner. Interim order to continue till July 9," Justice Gupta said.

During the hearing, the ASG contended that custodial interrogation of the legislator was required for the recovery of the torn demolition order.

Advocate and AAP member H.S. Phoolka told the court that there was no need of custodial interrogation as Jarnail Singh has been cooperating in the probe.

Jarnail Singh joined the investigation on May 7, 8 and 14 and handed over his mobile phone, he said.

During the probe, he also disclosed that he did not tear any official document, and "therefore, question of its recovery does not arise and so his custodial interrogation is not called for", argued Phoolka.