Ragging case: Kachroo killers get 4 years jail

HT Correspondent, Email Author, Dharamsala, November 12, 2010

 

A court in Dharamsala on Thursday sentenced four final-year medical students in Himachal Pradesh to four years’ rigorous imprisonment for brutally beating first-year student Aman Kachroo and causing his death in March 2009. Aman bled to death following severe injuries to his head inflicted by the students who ragged him and others in the hostel of Dr Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Tanda town in Kangra district. Aman died in the medical college hospital soon after being taken there by fellow students.

His death had made headli-nes in the national media and public outrage prompted the state government to set up a fast-track court to hear the case.

Dharamsala additional district and sessions judge Puren-der Vaidya held the accused — Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Mukul Sharma and Abhinav Verma — guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
But the verdict came as a disappointment to the Kachroo family.  “We are not happy with the quantum of punishment that has been given to the accused. We feel that the quantum has diluted the message,” said Aman’s father, Rajendra Kachroo, from Gurgaon.

The four accused stood motionless in court, murmuring prayers while the judgment was being delivered on Thursday. After the verdict, they sat quietly on the benches outside the courtroom while their parents consoled them.