4 accused in Aman Kachru ragging case surrender

Dharamsala: All the four medical students accused of ragging to death first year student Aman Kachru last year surrendered in a local Himachal Pradesh court here on Thursday.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court on Wednesday had cancelled the bail given to Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma by a trial court and directed them to surrender before the trial court here.

"All the four accused have surrendered in fast-track court of Purinder Vaidya," said District Deputy Attorney R.K. Kaushal.

He said the trial court has listed the matter for next hearing on August 2.

The high court, which initiated suo motu proceedings after the bail, had said, "The order passed by the trial court granting bail to the accused is against law... accordingly quashed and set aside."

The fast track court had granted bail to the four on July 17 after 16 months of custody.

Setting aside the bail order, the high court said "the trial court ignored that three of the accused (Naveen, Abhinav and Mukul) are also involved in other criminal case".

During the arguments in the high court, Advocate General R.K. Bawa, who represented the government, said the trial court has shown undue haste in granting bail to the accused without considering the fact that the recording of the evidence would come to an end on August 6.

The trial court has so far recorded the statement of 26 witnesses. Statements of some doctors and police personnel are yet to be recorded, he added.

Aman Kachru, 19, died on March 8, 2009, a few hours after being allegedly ragged by the four final-year students of the Rajendra Prasad Medical College in Tanda town near here.

After Kachru’s death, the state government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into his death.

The inquiry report said many first-year students, including Kachru, were subjected to intense physical ragging on March 7, 2009.

"Kachru collapsed and died because of injuries, which the post-mortem report has linked to the incident of ragging," said the report, holding college principal Suresh Sankhyan, responsible for the lapses.

Sankhyan resigned from the post after the incident and a departmental inquiry regarding the incident is still on.