Two get life term for BJYM leader’s murder

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, May 27

Two persons have been awarded the life sentence in the murder case of the Panchkula western mandal president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), the youth wing of the BJP. 

The accused, Arun and Ajay, were convicted and awarded the sentence while four others — Sanjay, Pradeep, Zorawar and Saroj Hooda — were acquitted in the case.

The incident had occurred on May 26, 2014, in which youth leader Ashutosh Bhardwaj (25) was shot dead while his younger brother Rahul Bhardwaj (23) and father Krishan Bhardwaj were seriously injured when a group of youths, carrying firearms and sharp weapons, attacked the family at their residence in Manav Colony near Saketri village late at night.

The assailants had entered his room and one of them fired a gunshot on the right side of Ashutosh’s chest while the others attacked both brothers with sharp weapons, leaving them with serious injuries all over their bodies. Hearing the shrieks of his sons, Krishan, who was sleeping on the ground floor, rushed to the rescue of his sons, but he, too, was attacked by the armed youths. 

Ashutosh’s wife Neeru, who had given birth to a baby girl 10 days ago, was  sleeping with her infant and two-year-old daughter on the ground floor at the time of the incident. A case under Sections 148, 149, 323, 452 and 302 of the IPC and under the Arms Act had been registered at the Mansa Devi Complex police station. The police said past enmity between the deceased and Arun was at the root of the crime.