Aakash Vijayvargiya (L) along with his father Kailash Vijayvargiya (R).
Credit: X/@KailashOnline
The civic body official who was allegedly assaulted by BJP's Aakash Vijayvargiya in 2019, turning hostile during cross examination was among the main reasons that led to the acquittal of the former Indore MLA and nine others in the much talked about case.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the building inspector of the Indore Municipal Corporation Dhirendra Singh Bais, who was allegedly beaten up by Vijayvargiya with a cricket bat, told the court that he couldn't be sure about who hit him as he was "engrossed in his phone at the time of the incident".
Bais also said that he could not "speak to the authenticity of the photos/videos" of the alleged incident.
Akash, son of Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya and then MLA from Indore 3, was arrested on June 26, 2019.
At the the time of the incident, Congress was in power in the state and had promised to convict Akash.
As per the report, Bais had initially identified Akash based on the footage of the incident, shown to him at the MG Road police station. He signed the identification memo as well.
In the court too, he testified against Akash and identified him based on a set of photographs and a video shown by the prosecution, as the “individual in the blue shirt with the bat”.
During the cross examination in 2022, Bais, however, said, "As there were hundreds of people, including police officers, it was unclear who was pushing and shoving."
He also accepted the suggestion of the defence team that “there was no photo of Akash Vijayvargiya hitting with a bat”.
The prosecution blamed the two-year delay in cross-examination for Bais changing his statement.
A special court on September 9 acquitted Aakash Vijayvargiya and nine other accused in the case.
"The prosecution could not prove the charges in the case in the court. Due to this, the court acquitted Vijayvargiya and nine others," defence lawyer Udaypratap Singh Kushwah had said.
(With PTI inputs)