New Delhi: A Delhi court extended by 14 days the judicial custody of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) Councillor Dimple Chadha, accused of pressurising a builder to pay bribe to save a building from being demolished by the MCD.
Special CBI judge Pradeep Chaddah extended Dimple`s judicial custody till November 1.
Dimple, a Councillor from Sant Garh in west Delhi`s Tilak Nagar and also the vice president of SAD (Badal), is accused of pressurising Santokh Singh, a builder in his constituency, to pay Rs 2 lakh for raising a structure or else he would get it demolished by MCD officials.
He had surrendered before CBI on September 27 after evading arrest for two weeks and being refused anticipatory bail by the court.
He was first remanded in judicial custody on October 3.
The councillor`s personal assistant Gagan Arora is also an accused in the case and was nabbed in a trap laid by CBI when he was accepting a part of the bribe money on September 14.
Complainant Santokh Singh had also written to the police seeking protection alleging that he had received a threatening telephone call from Dimple while he was absconding.
In its order rejecting Dimple`s anticipatory bail plea on September 24, the court had noted that the Dimple had been extorting money using his muscle power and misusing the armed police guards provided by Punjab Police.
"Out of hundred people who suffer extortion, only a handful gather the courage to lodge a complaint. Keeping in mind his behaviour, it would not be in the interest of justice to let him roam free," the court had said.
The judge was also told by the complainant that Dimple collects Rs 1,000 from each property dealer in the event of rallies and even washermen in the area are forced to pay Rs 300.
The court`s attention was also brought to the complaints registered against Dimple for threatening one Vikram Vinayak and also Yashpal Arora, director of an automobile service station in his area.
Dimple had forced the automobile businessman to pay Rs 100 per car serviced.
