Chandigarh stalking case: CCTV footage of incident found:Police

TIL Desk/National/Chandigarh/ The Chandigarh Police has confirmed that it has retrieved CCTV footage of the incident of alleged stalking by Haryana BJP chief’s son Vikas Barala and his friend, who followed an IAS officer’s daughter’s car on her way home.

“The Chandigarh Police have retrieved footage of five CCTV cameras on the route, capturing the chase of victim’s vehicle by the alleged vehicle of the accused,” a Chandigarh Police officer said. He confirmed that the footage showed the victim’s car being followed by a white SUV. The police had received flak earlier on Monday after they said the CCTVs along the route were non-functional.

DGP Tejinder Singh Luthra said that the police have procured footage establishing that the victim was being chased by the accused in a Tata Safari. However, he refused to divulge the source of footage, which he said were either from the police’s CCTV cameras or those privately installed.

According to reports, police have retrieved footage from five of the seven CCTV cameras installed along the route, and will provide further details at a press conference on Tuesday. The victim had called up the police on Friday night complaining that two youth were chasing her along a stretch of over five km.

Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala’s son Vikas (23) and Ashish Kumar (27) were initially arrested but were released on bail hours later. The footage is vital to proving the charge that Vikas and Kumar followed 29-year-old Varnika Kundu on 4 August at midnight. While the state BJP ruled out Barala’s resignation, it’s deputy president Ramveer Bhatti questioned why the 29-year-old woman was driving at odd hours.