Witnesses deny clash triggered incident

Sandeep Rana

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, February 18

Two eyewitnesses today denied the account of co-accused Harmehtab Singh, alias Farid, that there was a clash which triggered the incident in Sector 9. The main accused Balraj Singh Randhawa had run his BMW car over Akansh Sen, a kin of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh on that fateful day.

Eyewitnesses Karan and Rajan Pupneja, who recorded their statements under Section 164 of the CrPc in a closed-door court, said outside the courtroom, “Had they been beaten up with baseball bats that day, this incident would not have happened. If Farid says they were beaten up, then he should show us the injury marks.”

They also denied that there was any clash at the Boom Box Cafe in Sector 9 that day. “We two along with Akansh and his cousin Adamya Rathore were at the cafe and went to pick up Shera outside Deep Sidhu’s house. When we reached there, one of the accused said to Akansh: are you the bodyguard of Shera, and in a friction of a second, they ran the car over him before speeding away. We then took him in our car to the PGI,” recalled the two.

Rajan further stated that they never met Balraj, Deep or Farid, as they were known only to the deceased. “Our motive is to get justice for our brother and till the last hearing in the case, we will be here for the same,” he added.

Akansh’s dream was to see cafe succeed

Boom Box Cafe in Sector 9, which was opened one-and-half month ago, was a joint venture of four friends, including Akansh, who wanted to see it succeed.“Akansh and we were happy that we had opened something of our own in Chandigarh. He wanted to see it succeed and we planned to open more ventures together. Now, we will ensure that his wish is fulfilled,” remembers an emotional Rajan, one of the four partners of the cafe. “I am not able to drive my car as I am still in a shock. We were friends for nearly 10 years,” he said.

Rajan, victim studied together in school

Rajan and Akansh studied together at Pinegrove School before shifting to Delhi for higher studies. “We all know him as a humble and gentle guy. We have fond memories of spending good times together. Recently, we had gone to China,” Rajan told The Tribune.