Two months after outsider's death at hostel, Panjab University student gets bail

A local court has granted bail to Aryan Prabhat, a resident of Himachal Pradesh and a student of Panjab University who was arrested after the death of an outsider at the boys’ hostel number 7.

The police had registered a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 105 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita after an outsider, Vikas, died on November 19 last year. The police arrested two youths, including the victim’s friend Aryan, in the case.

As per the FIR, the victim, a resident of Kullu, had been staying in the hostel as Aryan’s guest. The police had received information about his death from the GMSH-16. The police claimed that Aryan and his friend Parikshit had brought Vikas to the hospital where he was declared brought dead.

Aryan and Parikshit told the police that three of them took intoxicants and went to sleep. In the morning, they woke up and found that Vikas had vomited. Since he was lying unconscious, they took him to the GMSH-16.

The counsel for the accused said Aryan was falsely implicated in the case.

After hearing the arguments, the court stated that the accused and co-accused had brought the victim to the hospital for his treatment. Though both the accused and the deceased had taken intoxicants together, it is nobody’s case that the applicant and his co-accused forced the victim to take intoxicants. It is also not clear from the post-mortem report whether Vikas had died before 3 am when his videos were made or he had died due to act and conduct of applicant-accused and the co-accused. Moreover, in one of the videos, as narrated in the FIR, the accused was also seen giving CPR to the deceased from which it can be assumed that they were trying to revive him.

The court observed that even as per the prosecution, the applicant and his co-accused were in an inebriated condition at that time. Therefore, it is debatable whether the accused had requisite intention or knowledge to commit the crime or not. The court said the applicant was in custody for over two months. Challan had already been presented in the case. Therefore, the accused was no more required for further investigation and nothing had to be recovered from him. The co- accused had already been granted bail. Without commenting upon other merits of the case, the bail application of the accused was allowed, the court stated.