Puneet murder case: A blow to the prosecution

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 4

In a blow to the prosecution in the sensational murder case of 27-year-old model Puneet Sandhu in a Sector 49 flat last year, the victim’s sister and mother failed to support the prosecution theory during their cross-examination by the defence counsel in the court today.

Puneet Sandhu was shot dead at her flat in Sector 49 on the night of October 16, 2014. Sandhu’s sister Avneet Kaur, in her statement to the police, had then said that Ram Lal Chaudhary and his daughter Anju got Puneet murdered as she had become the reason why Amit, Sandhu’s paramour and Ram Lal’s son, was ignoring his family.

The statements of the victim’s mother and sister were recorded in-camera in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Anshu Shukla today.

However, in the court today, Avneet Kaur stated that when she had submitted her first complaint to the police, she never named any of the accused booked by the police.

Raising a question mark on the police investigations, Avneet stated to the court that she was made to sign blank papers by the police, which had been misused and she had never named Anju and Ram Lal for the murder of her sister. She also stated that the police pressured them to give statements against the accused at the time the case was registered.

They told the court that they could identify the police officers who had asked them to sign the blank papers, said her counsel advocate Rabindera Pandit.

Her statements were corroborated by her mother Lakhwinder Kaur, who also failed to support the prosecution in the court today.

Meanwhile, the court also granted bail to co-accused Anju in the case today after it was brought to light that the main accused, Ram Lal, had been released on bail by the High Court.

There are four accused in the case, Ram Lal, his daughter Anju, Supreet and Manpreet, who supplied the weapon. Supreet was Amit’s friend, who was allegedly hired for Rs 6 lakh to commit the crime.