No stay on Gujjar’s petition

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 9

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday did not suspend conviction of former Chief Parliamentary Secretary Ram Kishan Gujjar in a case of abetment to suicide of a journalist. At the same time, the court fixed his appeal against conviction for hearing on September 13.

The HC had, in May 2017, suspended the four-year sentence awarded to Gujjar. A trial court in Ambala had sentenced Gujjar to four-year jail term on March 2, 2017. The Court had also asked Gujjar to pay Rs 5 lakh as compensation to the victim’s family.

Naraingarh-based journalist Pankaj Khanna had committed suicide by consuming poison. In his suicide note, he had blamed the MLA, along with two others. Khanna had alleged that he was being harassed and humiliated by the two at the MLA’s behest.

Soon after the incident, Khanna’s relatives had blocked the state highway, demanding registration of a case against the MLA and others. The MLA had earlier claimed in the HC that he was being falsely dragged into the case dated June 11, 2009, on the complaint of victim’s father Yash Pal Khanna.

In an earlier pleas, Gujjar’s counsel said: “After the registration of the FIR, the police investigated the matter and filed a challan dated July 15, 2009. In the final report, the petitioner was kept in column number two as he was found innocent and the allegation levelled against the petitioner were found to be baseless.”