Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s co-accused in 2011 assault case walks free

Ramkrishan Upadhyay

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Chandigarh, March 20

A local court has acquitted a co-accused in an assault case registered against gangster Lawrence Bishnoi in 2011.

While the case against Bishnoi is still pending, the co-accused, Jasdeep Singh Sandhu, a resident of Amritsar, was acquitted after the complainant and other witness failed to identify him.

The case was registered against Bishnoi and other accused on a complaint of Harpreet Singh Grewal, former chairman of Haryana Students’ Association. Grewal had alleged that Bishnoi, then president of SOPU, along with four-five persons, came to his house around in Sector 40 around 8:45 pm on June 29, 2011. All of them had their faces covered and attacked him and his friends. Bishnoi was armed with a pistol and his accomplices were carrying swords, the complainant alleged. One of the accused hit him with a sword and he was injured. His friends Sikander and Manjinder were also attacked with swords.

After assaulting them, the accused left while threatening to kill them.

Grewal said earlier in the day, Bishnoi had some altercation with some members of PUSU in DAV College, Sector 10. At that time, he was sitting with the PUSU members, which did not go down well with Bishnoi.

On his complaint, a case was registered against the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 147, 148, 149, 452, 323, 325 and 506 of the IPC and Sections 25/54/59 of the Arms Act and arrested them.

After investigation, the police presented a challan against the accused. Finding prima facie case, Jasdeep Singh Sandhu was charge-sheeted under Sections 147, 148, 149, 323, 325 and 506 of the IPC and to which he pleaded not guilty.

The counsel of Jasdeep argued that the main witness, the complainant, had turned hostile due to which the allegations against the accused remained unproved on record.

After hearing of the arguments, the court acquitted him.

The court said Bishnoi and Inderjeet Singh were not appearing in the case through production warrants since their custody was required by police officials of various states due to which the trial of the case was being delayed. As such it was ordered to separate the challan against Bishnoi and Inderjeet from other accused.