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Two accused, arrested in connection with the death of a 19-year-old Arunachal Pradesh youth, on Friday argued in a Delhi court that they be granted bail as they have not been booked for murder charges and the offences alleged against them were bailable.
Arguing on bail pleas of accused Sunder Singh and Pawan, the defence counsel said the cause of death of the victim Nido Tania, who was allegedly beaten by some shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar market in south Delhi, was still not identified.
Their counsel pleaded both the accused were innocent and were in fact eyewitness to the alleged incident. Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri has listed the bail pleas of the two accused for further hearing on February 11 after the Delhi police sought time to advance its arguments.
The bail plea was on Thursday transferred to the special court by another court due to lack of jurisdiction to hear the cases registered under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Act.
Metropolitan Magistrate Pawan Kumar had recused himself from taking up the pleas and said the applications be heard by the Special Court as the accused have been arrested under the law which deals with offences of atrocities against SC and ST members.
Until now, three accused Farman, Sunder Singh and Pawan have been arrested in connection with the case. Besides being charged with murder, the trio, who are in judicial custody, have been booked under Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
During the hearing, the police apprised the court that test identification parade of the accused will be done on February 13.
Relatives of Taniam, a BA first year student in a private university, alleged he had an altercation with the shopkeepers on January 29 after they made fun of his hairstyle, following which they allegedly thrashed him. He was brought dead to All India Institute of Medical Sciences the next day.