Chandigarh, October 3:Less than a month after the then Bathinda Superintendent of Police (Investigations) was summoned for recommending diluted charges in the case of a dancer’s death during marriage celebrations, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has asked the officer to explain why a case under graver offences was not registered.
As the case came up for resumed hearing before Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal, Bathinda’s then SP (Investigations) Bikramjit Singh was present in the court.
Justice Grewal directed him to file an affidavit to explain on what basis he prepared a report that a case under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC was made out, instead of Section 302 (murder) or Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
Section 304-A entails imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years; the term could extend up to life imprisonment in some cases under Section 304. Punishment for murder under Section 302 could be death sentence or life term.
The directions on a petition filed by accused Lucky Kumar alias Billa came more than nine months after the dancer, Kulwinder Kaur, was killed in celebratory firing at a wedding. He was seeking regular bail in an FIR dated December 4, 2016, registered at Maur police station in Bathinda district.
Arguing before Justice Grewal, the counsel for the petitioner contended that the allegations against him (petitioner) were that he had fired into the air after borrowing a .12-bore gun from the co-accused during the celebrations. It accidentally hit a dancer, who was stated to have died on the spot.
The counsel further stated that only an offence under Section 304-A of the IPC and Sections 27 and 30 of the Arms Act was made out as per the report of the SP (Investigations). He added that Sections 302, 148 and 149 of the IPC and Section 25 of the Arms Act were to be deleted.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
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