Brandy challenges life sentence

He has alleged that the doctor who conducted the post mortem of the deceased has said in his statement that he had given the bullet and the bullet jacket to the investigating agency which failed to produce the same before the Court. “When bullet jacket extracted from the body has not been connected with empty cartridge allegedly recovered from the spot and the pistol recovered in this case,then which cartridge and weapon caused this bullet injury?” asked Brandy in his appeal. He has further submitted that it is “a case of blind murder and that no identification parade was ever held by the police”.

Paramour of Neki Nalwa,Brandy is undergoing life imprisonment in Punjab Jail for murdering Nalwa’s husband Sukhwinderjit Singh,who was an engineer with Quark. The convict has also questioned the veracity of statements made by the brother of the deceased. He has alleged that the mobile phone belonging to Gurwinderjit Singh,brother of the deceased,shows constant movement from one sector to another on the fateful day,contrary to the claim of Gurwinderjit Singh that he had forgot his mobile phone at home.

Referring to this “lacuna”,the convict has tried to claim that the statement of brother of deceased cannot be relied upon. Taking stock of the contentions,the Punjab and Haryana High Court today admitted Brandy’s appeal and stayed the penalty of Rs 25000 imposed on him by the Mohali Court.

On June 6,not finding it to be a “rarest of rare case” which would invite a death sentence,the Court of the Additional District and Sessions Judge had awarded life imprisonment to Neki and her paramour Himmat Singh alias Brandy. In a 117-page judgment,the Mohali Court had ruled,“It stands amply proved that accused Himmat Singh and Neki Nalwa had conspired with each other and in pursuance of the said conspiracy,committed the murder of Sukhwinderjit ,as per prosecution story,by firing a shot from the pistol.”

In 2005 Sukhwinderjit Singh,a Quark City engineer,was shot dead at Sector 69,Mohali,when he was with his wife Neki Nalwa. Neki had an extra-marital affair with Brandy and the two planned her husband’s murder.