HC suspends sentence of Virbhadra kin’s killer ‘till pendency of appeal’

Harmehtab had been convicted by Chandigarh district Court and was sentenced to life imprisonment till the end of natural life on November 20, 2019. The Court also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on the convict.

Akansh Sen was run over by the BMW car driven by Balraj Singh Randhawa, while it is alleged that the co-driver Harmehtab Singh alias Farid asked Randhawa to kill Sen, at Sector 9, Chandigarh, on the fateful night of February 9, 2017.

While seeking suspension of sentence during the hearing, the counsel for Harmehtab, senior Advocate Vinod Ghai with Kanika Ahuja contended that the applicant has been made a scapegoat who was sitting next to the driver seat, just because the main accused namely Balraj Randhawa who was driving the vehicle was declared Proclaimed Offender and never arrested, and the Prosecution under immense pressure due to accidental death of real nephew of the then sitting Chief Minister implicated the present applicant by giving complexion of murder to an apparently accidental case.