Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh High Court has admitted an appeal of Naveen Kumar Verma, the convict in the Aman Kachroo ragging case, pleading not guilty.
Justice Surinder Singh perused Naveen Kumar Verma's
appeal and admitted it for hearing.
Verma, who was sentenced to a four-year imprisonment
along with three other students for causing Kachroo's death,
has pleaded not guilty and blamed media hype over the case for
his conviction.
Verma's counsel Anup Chitkara contended that when the
four culprits had started to rag Kachroo the night before he
died, Verma had sent the first-year medicine student back to
his room after the boy told him about a problem in his ear.
This incident proved that the appellant had no intention
to cause any physical harm to Kachroo, Chitkara said.
19-year-old Kachroo, a first year MBBS student of RP
Government Medical college in Tanda (Kangra), was subjected to
assault by his seniors Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma
and Mukul Sharma under the pretext of ragging on the
intervening night of March 6 and 7 last year.
He died on March 8, after lodging a complaint with the
college authorities. According to medical reports, the boy
died due to brain haemorrhage.
On November 11, a sessions court in Dharamsala convicted
all the four accused under Section 304 (2) of the IPC
(culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and sentenced them
to four years' rigorous imprisonment and also imposing a fine
of Rs 10,000 on each of them.
Verma's counsel said the case was highlighted by the
media and contended that the trial could neither be termed
fair nor could it be said that the trial judge was "not at
all" influenced by the hype created by the press attention.
It was further alleged in the appeal that evidence was
brought out against Verma during the hearing in connivance
with the police and the appellant (Kachroo's father) and that
no case could be made out against Verma.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 02, 2010, 19:06