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CBI spokesman S M Khan said Badal was remanded to custody till July 8 by the chief judicial magistrate of Saharanpur to enable the agency to complete its probe into the poaching of three leopards in the Shivalik hills of Uttar Pradesh.
During the marathon argument, Badal's counsel said his client had injury marks on his stomach, which he allegedly suffered on July 3 when the CBI questioned him for eight hours before placing him under arrest. CBI counsel objected to this claim.
"We made our stand very clear that after his arrest on July 3, he [Badal] was taken to Safdarjung Hospital for medical examination, where there was no mention of any injury," Khan said.
According to Khan, what had happened at the district jail, where Badal was sent after being remanded to a day's judicial custody, was not the CBI's problem. "If those injuries were sustained on July 3, neither his counsel nor the accused raised the matter on Thursday during the hearing despite being asked by the judge," he pointed out.
In a related development, District Forest Officer Paramjit Singh has told the CBI that Badal had approached him to do a story on poaching.
Singh's name cropped up during the interrogation of the two poachers, Inam and Meherban, who claimed that he had introduced Badal to them.
Following this, the CBI twice summoned Singh, who denied involvement in any criminal activity. But he reportedly told the agency that Badal had come to him on the pretext of wanting to meet some poachers for a story.
Singh pleaded ignorance, however, of Badal's motives. The reporter is being accused of having set up a sting operation for his Web site, a charge denied by Tehelka CEO Tarun Tejpal.
Badal was sent to the district jail in Saharanpur on Thursday after the court ordered him to a day's judicial custody. He had been arrested on Wednesday after he allegedly "did not co-operate" with the agency's sleuths during interrogation.
The CBI says Badal was none other than 'Pankaj', for whom the two poachers, arrested earlier, had been working. They used to get in touch with 'Pankaj' on a mobile telephone number, 9810290047, belonging to Buffalo Networks Private Limited, which owns Tehelka.
The case, which pertaining to the killing and skinning of three leopards in Biharigarh area of Shivalik division, has been registered under sections 9, 49, 49-A and 51 of the Wild Life Act of 1972 and section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
The CBI has also taken a handwriting sample of Badal, as the agency claims that he had signed at some hotels during his stay at Saharanpur.
PTI
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