National

Surrender only last resort: Todi counsel

KOLKATA: Even as the Central Bureau of Investigation continues with its attempts to track down Ashok Todi, his brother and a relative against whom arrest warrants have been issued by the Calcutta High Court in the Rizwanur Rahman case, their lawyer said his clients would contemplate surrendering only as a “last resort”.

“We are not contemplating surrendering until we move the Supreme Court, once it reopens on November 3, for a clarification of an order regarding stay of trial till the disposal of an appeal by Ashok Todi,” counsel Ayan Chakravarty told The Hindu here on Wednesday. “We shall also challenge the Magistrate Court’s action in issuing the arrest warrant.”

The non-bailable arrest warrant was issued by the seventh Metropolitan Magistrate of the Bankshal Court on October 27 against the Todi brothers and their cousin, Anil Saraogi, after they failed to appear in person in compliance with an earlier order. It directed the CBI to arrest them by November 3.

Officials of the CBI visited their residences during the day but neither Saraogi nor the Todis were there.

Rizwanur, a computer graphics teacher, was found dead by the side of the railway track near here on September 21, 2007, weeks after his marriage to Priyanka, Mr. Todi’s daughter. The CBI took over the probe from the State’s Criminal Investigation Department following a court order and later concluded that Rizwanur had taken his own life.

The agency chargesheeted seven persons including Mr. Todi for allegedly abetting in the suicide and for criminal intimidation. After having been remanded to judicial custody by a court following their surrender, they were released on grant of interim bail by the City Sessions Court on October 1.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu