Ex-Andaman chief secretary remanded police custody in gang rape case till November 25.
A local court on Wednesday remanded former chief secretary of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Jitendra Narain to police custody till November 25 in a gang rape case filed against him and others by a 21-year-old woman.
The police sought the custody of Narain, who was in judicial remand, as the special investigation team (SIT) wants to interrogate him jointly with two other accused - suspended Labour Commissioner Rishishwar Lal Rishi and a businessman Sandeep Singh alias Rinku.
After hearing the arguments of Public Prosecutor Sumit Karmakar, the victim's lawyer Phatick Chandra Das and Rishi's counsel Rakesh Pal Govind, Chief Judicial Magistrate Ayan Majumder forwarded Narain and Singh to police custody till November 25.
Rishi, who was arrested on Monday after he reached here from Chennai, is in police custody since November 22.
The three accused were taken to the Police Line by the special investigation team (SIT) headed by IPS officer Monika Bhardwaj for a joint interrogation.
The SIT was constituted to probe allegations that the 21-year-old woman was lured to the chief secretary's home with the promise of a government job, and then raped there by top officials including Narain there.
Singh, who had been absconding, was apprehended from Haryana on November 13.
The FIR in the case was registered on October 1 when Narain was posted as the chairman and managing director of the Delhi Financial Corporation. The government suspended him on October 17 with immediate effect.
The woman claimed in the FIR that as her father and stepmother did not take care of her financial needs, she needed a job and was introduced by some people to the labour commissioner as he was close to the then chief secretary.
She also claimed that the chief secretary appointed "7,800 candidates" in various departments in the administration of the islands "on the basis of recommendation only" and without any "formal interview".
The woman alleged that she was lured to the chief secretary's home with the promise of a government job, and then raped there on April 14 and May 1.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)