Nido Taniam murder case: Judicial custody of accused extended

A Delhi court today extended by 14 days the judicial custody of four persons arrested in connection with the death of a 19-year-old Arunachal Pradesh youth here.

After expiry of their earlier remand, accused Farman, Sunder Singh, Pawan Parmania and Sunny Uppal were produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Bhawna Kalia, who sent them back to Tihar Jail till March 11 after Delhi Police did not seek their custodial interrogation. "The accused be produced from JC (judicial custody) before the court concerned on March 11," the court said.

The accused were apprehended after relatives of deceased Nido Taniam, a BA first year student in a private university, alleged that he had an altercation with some shopkeepers at Lajpat Nagar market here on January 29 after they made fun of his hairstyle, following which they allegedly thrashed him. He was brought dead to AIIMS the next day. The death of Tania, son of a Congress MLA, evoked angry reactions from people of the northeast living in the national capital who alleged police had failed to protect him. They also accused Delhiites of racial prejudices to the people from the region.

Police had booked all the four accused under section 302 (murder) of IPC after the postmortem report revealed that Nido died due to injuries to his head and face caused by a blunt object.

Initially, police had on February 3 arrested three of the accused under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.

On February 10, police arrested Sunny and slapped murder charge on all the four accused. Two minors who also allegedly assaulted Nido are facing an inquiry before the Juvenile Justice Board here.