GURUGRAM: A local journalist, detained three days ago in connection with a
murder case, was on Friday formally arrested by police on charges of criminal conspiracy.
Pradeep Nirala was produced in a court that sent him to judicial custody.
Pradeep was detained by police on Tuesday for questioning after the villagers and family of 43-year-old Badshapur resident
Anand Vashishtha, who was killed on the same day, alleged that he had been involved in brokering a deal on behalf of the accused in an earlier attempt to murder case that eventually led to the killing.
The arrest came after the
National Commission for Scheduled Castes on Thursday asked the Gurugram deputy commissioner and the police to furnish within three days a response on Pradeep’s whereabouts after his family approached it, saying his life was in danger.
“We took a representation to the commissioner of police and SHO of Badshapur police station to seek information about Pradeep and asked them not to frame our brother.
“We think that the cops could kill him and stage an encounter to get promoted,” read the family’s complaint to the Commission. Vashisht was shot dead in the early hours of Tuesday while his wife Karishma sustained gunshot wound in the attack.
A police spokesperson said on Thursday that “Pradeep was called in for questioning after the villagers alleged his involvement. We are questioning him to see if he had a role to play”.
