Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 27: The state high court (HC) instructed the police on Wednesday April 26 to question former city corporator, V Nagraj and his two sons, who face several cases of abduction, death threat, cheating etc, only in the presence of his legal counsel.

Nagraj, who has remained elusive, and whose attempts at getting anticipatory bail have reportedly failed, had approached the state high court through a writ petition. He said he is ready to cooperate with police investigation relating to various cases registered against him and provide answers to all questions they might raise. He apprehended that after his surrender or arrest, there is a chance of investigating officials using third degree methods of torture against him. Therefore, he had requested high court to conduct his interrogation in the presence of his advocate as per the constitutional rights endowed to him, and to capture the entire proceedings on video.

The single judge bench of the HC presided over by Justice A S Bopanna said that after the arrest of the accused or his surrender in the court, the constitutional rights he enjoys cannot be violated. Quoting the verdict of Supreme Court in Nandini Satpathy vs Dani (1978), it disposed off the writ petition after directing the police to question the under trial prisoner in the presence of his advocate and also to record the same on video.