An assistant sub-inspector and a civic volunteer of the Bidhannagar commissionerate, who had been arrested on December 12 on molestation charges, were on Friday remanded in police custody for three days.
On December 13, the additional chief judicial magistrate of the Bidhannagar court, Santanu Ganguly, had remanded ASI Sandip Kumar Pal and civic volunteer Abhishek Malakar in 14 days’ judicial custody.
The commissionerate filed a plea on Thursday for police custody of the men as the investigation team wanted to reconstruct the crime and recover a cellphone of one of the accused, an officer said.
On Thursday, the two were produced before the additional chief judicial magistrate.
A woman from Asansol has mentioned in her complaint that Pal and Malakar molested her while giving her a lift on a bike in Salt Lake.
Defense counsel Avishek Mukherjee and Pabitra Biswas opposed the petition for police remand, saying their clients had already handed their phones to the police and there was no need for reconstruction of the crime.
Public prosecutor Shabir Ali said “reconstruction is extremely important for proper investigation”.
The additional chief judicial magistrate said: "Why were they (the accused) in uniform well after their duty hours. Their uniform gave confidence to the woman….”
