E-Paper
Court to UT cops: Won’t accept ‘untraced’ report in Akansh Sen murder case
The court also ordered the file to be sent back to the concerned authorities through the Chandigarh SSP, court also directed the concerned SHO to submit the final investigation report as early as possible
The chief judicial magistrate (CJM) court in Chandigarh has refused to accept the ‘untraced report’ filed by the UT police this year concerning Balraj Singh Randhawa, the main accused absconding in the 2017 murder case of Akansh Sen, who was the nephew of former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh’s wife. The court’s decision, issued on December 8, stemmed from highly contradictory reports presented by different police units.
During the hearing, the counsel for the complainant, Arun Sen (Akansh’s father), presented a report from the crime branch stating that the accused, Balraj Singh Randhawa (a proclaimed offender or PO), is located in Canada and that extradition proceedings are actively being initiated. This directly conflicted with the ‘untraced report’ filed by the investigating officer of the Sector-3 Police Station, which claimed that all raids in Randhawa’s native village and other possible places had yielded “no clue”, and requested to close the case as it was old.
CJM Sachin Yadav expressed surprise at the procedural lapse, noting that the ‘untraced report’ was accepted by the DSP (Central) on July 7, despite the existence of a contradictory report from the crime branch concerning the same accused in another court. Consequently, the court returned the file for further investigation. The investigating officer was directed to examine the crime branch’s report and investigate the matter accordingly, submitting a final report at the earliest. The court also ordered the file to be sent back to the concerned authorities through the Chandigarh SSP. Court also directed the concerned SHO to submit the final investigation report as early as possible.
The case dates back to February 9, 2017, when Randhawa allegedly ran over Akansh Sen with a white BMW in Sector 9, Chandigarh, following an altercation. Randhawa fled immediately and was declared a proclaimed offender. The co-accused, Harmehtab Singh alias Farid, was arrested soon after and was later sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2019. The investigation was transferred to the crime branch in September 2018. Meanwhile, the complainant alleged slow progress by the UT Police in tracing the main accused and had filed an application in 2023, seeking directions that the absconding accused in the case, Balraj Singh Randhawa, be traced and extradited from Canada.
