Lt Col Sandhu joins probe

Tribune News Service

Mohali, May 16 

WWICS chairman Lt Col BS Sandhu (retd), who remained elusive for nearly 50 days after being nominated in case of alleged murder of CTU employee Abhishek Guleria, joined the police investigation here on Wednesday morning.

The police arrested him and later released him on bail after quizzing him for around 10 hours. The major development in the case is that the police have dropped the charge of murder (Section 302 of the IPC) against Sandhu and his three employees, Gurvinder Singh Bains from Noorpur Bedi and Balwinder Singh and Tarsem Chand from Nada village, who had already been arrested in the case. The trio was working at Forest Hill Resort, also owned by Sandhu, at Nayagaon. 

Now only two Sections — 304 A (causing death by negligence) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC have been slapped against Sandhu and the others in the case. 

Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police Kuldeep Singh Chahal said the murder charge had been dropped on the basis of the forensic report, the postmortem report, the investigation carried out by SIT and circumstantial evidence.

“As per the forensic and postmortem reports, Guleria was not murdered. His postmortem report says he drowned. It has come out in our investigation that Sandhu and the victim had never met. They did not know each other. There was never any communication and any enmity between the duo,” said the SSP.

“Sandhu has been charged with Sections 304 A and 201 of the IPC as the victim’s body was recovered from an open septic tank of the resort, owned by him. His employees disposed of the body at a deserted site along the Pinjore-Baddi highway instead of informing the police,” said Chahal. 

Sandhu joined the investigation at the SSP’s office at the Mohali Police Headquarters in Sector 76 around 8 am and was released on bail around 6.30 pm. 

V Neeraja, IGP, Ropar Range, said Sandhu surrendered before the SIT at the Mohali SSP’s office on Wednesday. “The SIT quizzed him for around 10 hours before releasing him on bail in the evening,” said the IGP. 

Was unwell, scared

Asked why he remained elusive for long, Sandhu told the police that he was unwell and scared as well. Sources said Sandhu told the police that he was scared of being falsely implicated in the murder case.