Eyewitnesses’ account lead to conviction

Dushyant Singh Pundir
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 20

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Rajeev Goyal concluded that it was eyewitnesses’ account of three friends along with medical evidence, which was enough to prove the guilt of Harmehtab Singh, alias Farid, in Akansh Sen’s murder case.

However, Gagandeep Singh Shergill, alias Shera, for whom Akansh was murdered as he was taking his side, lied before the court.

Sen was allegedly run over by a BMW car in Sector 9 on February 9, 2017. Balraj Singh Randhawa was driving the car, while Farid was sitting along with him. Randhawa is still absconding.

Account of three friends

The court deduced from the statements of Admaya Singh Rathore, Karanyog Singh and Rajan Pupneja that “utterance that ‘Akansh was acting as bodyguard of Shera and, therefore, he shall be dealt with first and Shera shall be seen afterwards’, has to be attributed both to the accused Farid as well as his accomplice Randhawa”.

The three friends, who stood by Akansh had taken him to the PGIMER in a Skoda car, which had his blood stains too.

On the other hand, Shera during his deposition kept on saying that he did not see anything happening outside the house as he was inside. “The manner in which he deposed, I have no hesitation in concluding that he lied in court whereas he was legally as well morally bound to tell truth nothing but truth,” commented the judge.

Court solves riddle on Akansh’s injuries

The court also solved the riddle why despite being run over thrice by BMW car, Akansh didn’t suffer “crush injuries” leading to fracture of bones and degloving of skin.

Based on eyewitnesses’ account and medical evidence, the court said Akansh was heavily drunk as his blood had 98.3 mg of alcohol.

“A drunk person walks clumsily because, due to the effect of alcohol, the cerebellum is unable to co-ordinate muscular movements properly. Hence, it can well be said that just prior to being hit by BMW car, Akansh’s both legs were not firmly fixed on the ground. Further, since BMW car was not far away from him, prior to hitting the deceased, it must not have achieved great speed and, therefore, his bones of both legs below knee having not received any fracture, has not come as a surprise,” said the judge.

After being hit, he fell on the left side on the ground and at that time, he was run over by the left tyres of the car. Due to this reason, he received injuries on his lower abdomen,” he said.

“...when BMW car had run over Akansh second and third time, it had crossed over his legs only but luckily he escaped unhurt on account of the car being a high end vehicle, having a jump over the legs which is the reason that he did not suffer any crush injury,” said the judgment.