SC holds INLD ex-MLA Bali Pehalwan, 2 doctors guilty

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today ruled that Balbir Singh, alias Bali Pehalwan, ex-INLD MLA from Meham, had evaded arrest for nearly two years in a 2011 murder case by taking “medical asylum” in a private hospital in Gurgaon with the connivance of two doctors.

Bali Pehalwan (extreme right)

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, December 15

The Supreme Court today ruled that Balbir Singh, alias Bali Pehalwan, ex-INLD MLA from Meham, had evaded arrest for nearly two years in a 2011 murder case by taking “medical asylum” in a private hospital in Gurgaon with the connivance of two doctors.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur directed the two doctors – Munish Prabhakar and KS Sachdev — to be present in the court on January 2, 2017, at the time of arguments on the quantum of sentence to be awarded to them for obstructing the administration of justice.

Since Dr Sachdev, Managing Director of the company that owned the Privat Hospital, was 76-year-old and the two doctors were medical professionals with “sufficient standing, in our view ends of justice would be met if one more opportunity is granted to them to present their view on the issue of punishment,” the Bench clarified.

The apex court directed the police to produce Pehalwan in the court at the time of next hearing.

It, however, discharged Rohtak SP Shashank Anand in the case as he had taken charge well after the non-bailable warrant was issued against Pehalwan.

The apex court delivered the judgement in the light of a CBI report that Bali could not have evaded arrest without the help of the Privat Hospital Pvt Ltd management and the police.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted bail to the accused on February 11, 2013, in a case relating to the murder of a person in an ‘anaj mandi’ in Rohtak district on May 6, 2011. On October 26, 2013, the apex court cancelled the bail and directed him to surrender immediately.

But Bali got himself admitted to the hospital and managed to remain there for 527 days with several breaks in between to go out. The hospital let him remain there despite the fact that he paid only about Rs 9 lakh out of a total bill of over Rs 36 lakh.

Appalled by the developments, the SC had ordered a CBI probe on July 9 . It had also summoned the Rohtak SP.

According to the FIR, Pehalwan with his 30-35 supporters had attacked the shop of Sita Ram who had refused to pay a donation of Rs 50,000. In the attack, Sita Ram’s brother-in-law, Vishnu, who was in the shop at that time, was killed and several persons were injured. The assailants had opened fire and used lathis.