UNI

New Delhi, Jun 8: Rahul Mahajan walked dizzily out of courtroom and was taken to Tihar jail on 14 days' judicial custody today, hours after he cried out his innocence before television cameras.

"I am innocent...I have taken no drugs", the son of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan blurted out as he walked out of the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital on Thursday morning after a routine medical checkup, in his first public comment since mysteriously falling ill last Friday.

He looked harassed, but in much better health as he walked along with a police escort team.

By evening, police quizzed him one more time about Thursday's midnight party - where he fell ill and his father's aide Bibek Moitra died - before producing him in the court of Metropolitan Magistrate A K Chaturvedi, seeking a five-day extension of his police custody.

The judge, however, turned down the plea and sent him to 14 days' judicial custody. Public Prosecutor B S Joon claimed Rahul was not cooperating with the investigation and sought permission to conduct a lie detector test on him.

Defence lawyer Sunil Mittal opposed the stand. He maintained that there was no evidence against Rahul, that he was wrongly implicated in the case and that police had not properly defined the nature of drugs and its quantity recovered from him.

He also claimed a delay in registration of the FIR in the matter. The incident occurred on the intervening night of June 1 and 2 while the FIR was filed on June 3, he said.

Soon after the judge passed the order, Rahul complained that he was feeling dizzy. He was given some water and later, supported by two policemen, he walked to a van which took him to hospital and later to jail.

The police would move court again on Friday seeking his remand to conduct a narco analysis test on him, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Manish Agarwal said.