Ex-MP's brat son who brandished gun in hotel surrenders

Ashish Pandey, a former BSP MP's son who is accused of brandishing a pistol in the foyer of a five-star hotel here, surrendered before a Delhi court Thursday and was remanded to one-day police custody.

Ashish, who has been dodging the arrest despite joint efforts by Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, appeared in the Patiala House Courts here and moved a plea before Metropolitan Magistrate Neetu Sharma seeking to surrender.

While the accused alleged frame-up and "media trial" in his plea, the police sought Ashish's four-day custodial interrogation on various grounds including that it needed to quiz him to unravel the truth and he has to be taken to Lucknow for effecting recovery of weapon he brandished.

The court considered rival submissions and allowed the Delhi police to quiz Ashish, the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, in custody for one day.

During the brief hearing, the counsel representing the police said, "The accused is from Lucknow. Weapon has to be recovered to verify whether he has a license for the gun or not. His custody is required to know whereabouts of other accused and to recover the weapon i.e. pistol."

Advocate S P M Tripathi, appearing for Ashish, said the custodial interrogation was not required as police already knew that he possessed a licensed gun and he was being framed only because that his father was a politician.

"The police knows that the gun has a licence. I am not required. We are ready to provide the gun. He is not involved in previous cases. This is only because the father of the accused was a politician and the incident was hyped by media. No notice was served to the accused and non-bailable warrant was issued malafidely. Four-day police custody is not required," he said.

The application for surrender said that Ashish, the son of former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) lawmaker Rakesh Pandey, has been wrongly framed in the FIR and has been subjected to media trial.

It further said Ashish is ready to submit before the court voluntarily and the police may be directed to take him into custody if required.

The court had Wednesday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Ashish Pandey for brandishing a pistol at guests and threatening them in the foyer of a five-star hotel here.

A video of the incident that occurred early on October 14 went viral on social media resulting in public outrage. It prompted the police to step in and launch a hunt for the accused who had gone missing after the incident.

An FIR was filed on October 16 at R K Puram police station under various provisions of the IPC and the Arms Act relating to criminal intimidation and misuse of fire arms.

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