Seven held guilty of Saketri man’s gruesome murder

Seven years after the gruesome murder of a 26-year-old man in Saketri, the sessions court of Ved Parkash Sirohi has convicted seven persons in the case.

Those convicted are Trilok Singh, Manmeet Waraich, both residents of Panchkula, Vishal Saini of Chandigarh, Harmanpreet Singh, Talwinder Singh, Manjot Singh and Jashanpreet Singh, all from Mohali. The convicts were aged between 20 and 24 years at the time of the incident.

The incident took place on the day of Holi on March 13, 2017. The police had received information regarding a brawl wherein nearly 10 persons had allegedly attacked and abducted the victim, Varinder, a resident of Saketri village. The victim was taken away in a car with parts of his body hanging out of the vehicle. The victim was later dumped on the Chandigarh road. He was taken to the PGI where he succumbed to his injuries.

According to information available, over a year before the incident, Manmeet, one of the convicts, had had an altercation with Varinder’s cousin Avtar Singh. An FIR was registered in this regard. Later, the parties had reached a compromise.

On the day of the murder, Manmeet had called up Avtar and threatened to kill him and his family members.

Jai Singh, one of Varinder’s relatives, told the court that youths came in two vehicles and forcibly took Varinder along with them. While chasing them, they saw one of the cars grazing a bus and speeding towards Sukhana Lake. They later recovered the badly crushed body of Varinder.

The medical report of the deceased showed the victim had suffered deep abrasions, which were caused due to rubbing against a hard surface, on his face, scalp, right arm, abdomen, foot, knees and chest.

Inspector Mahender Singh, incharge, Crime Branch, Sector 26, stated in the court that a scene of crime team lifted a detached tooth, blood-stained clothes, samples of blood spilled on the road and other items from the spot.

Public prosecutor Akash Tanwar stated that the DNA report revealed that the blood samples lifted from the spot matched with the blood on the seat cover, fenders and tyres of a car recovered from the possession of Manmeet, alias Monty.

The court then convicted the seven accused of kidnapping, rioting and murder. The court also charged Manmeet Waraich, Trilok Singh, Vishal Saini and Talwinder Singh with disappearance of evidence by destroying SIM cards of their respective cellphones.

The court will pronounce the quantum of sentence on December 12.