HC asks CBI to consider UT’s plea for probe, if approached

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, January 15

Nearly two years after Himachal Pradesh former chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s relative Akansh Sen was crushed to death under the wheels of a BMW car in Sector 9, the Punjab and Haryana High Court today asked the CBI to consider expeditiously the UT Administration’s request in the event of it approaching the premier investigating agency.

The CBI had earlier refused to probe the case.

The direction by Justice Rajan Gupta came after the Bench went through a status report submitted in a sealed cover by UT counsel Gautam Dutt on the previous date of hearing.

Justice Gupta also asked the petitioner to specify if her son was ready to surrender in the case.

An FIR in the matter was registered on February 9, 2017, for attempt to murder and another offence under Sections 307 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 3 police station. The development took place on a petition filed by Ramanjit Kaur against the UT Administration and other respondents.

Mother of one of the accused, she, through counsel Pawan Kumar, was seeking issuance of directions to the UT Administration for referring the matter to the CBI for investigation. It was alleged that the petitioner and her family were being harassed in the name of investigation.

The victim, Akansh, was allegedly hit and dragged under the wheels of the BMW in Sector 9. Following the incident, the police slapped murder charges against two accused — Balraj Singh and Harmehtab Singh.

Referring to the events as narrated in the FIR, one of the accused had earlier claimed in his anticipatory bail plea that the victim, along with another person, visited the house of one Deep Sidhu early morning to enquire about a friend Shera.

They were apprehending that Shera and Harmehtab Singh were together in the house. It was then that Balraj Singh got into his car with Harmehtab Singh sitting on the passenger side and drove the car over the victim.