By IANS,
New Delhi : A city court Tuesday refused to release the air tickets of suspended Bharatiya Janáta Party (BJP) parliamentarian Babubhai Katara, arrested last year in a human trafficking case, terming the tickets an important piece of evidence.
Katara had moved a court earlier this month, seeking that the air tickets confiscated from him be returned so that he could claim refund against them.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate A.K. Kohar rejected Katara’s request, stating that the air tickets are the best available evidence against the accused and releasing them at this stage would hamper the investigation.
Katara, in his application, stated that the air tickets, which the Delhi Police took away after his arrest, were no longer required for investigation and should be returned so that he could cancel them and claim refund.
He told the court that since the police had already filed a charge-sheet against him, taking away his tickets would serve no purpose.
Katara is accused of procuring six passports in the name of six children who he claimed are his own.
Katara was detained while attempting to fly out a woman, Paramjeet Kaur, and a 15-year-old boy to Toronto against the passports of his wife and son.
Besides him, other accused in the case include Rajendra Kumar Gumpa, Kiran Dhar, Sunder Lal Yadav and travel agents Satwant and Mohammed Rasheed.
Katara, whose seven attempts to get bail have been rejected by various courts on the ground that his offence was serious as he committed it in the capacity of a member of parliament, was charge-sheeted in July last year.