4 years on, Mohali man fined ₹4,000 for injuring policeman

Rahul Kumar, from Jharkhand, riding pillion on Bhagirath’s motorcycle, however, was acquitted as “there is nothing on record to show that Rahul had instigated... Bhagirath to cause injury to the police official or prevented him from performing his official duty,” the court said

Mohali A motorcyclist who hit and injured a policeman at a checkpost after ignoring his signal to stop was convicted four years later by a Mohali court on Friday and fined ₹4,000 even as he was deemed to have undergone protracted trial after being booked and remaining in custody for a few days. The money will be paid as compensation to the policeman.

Deepika, chief judicial magistrate, Mohali, while convicting Bhagirath Singh from Bathinda who now lives in Mataur village here, said the court was taking a “lenient” view as the FIR was filed in 2015 and the accused had undergone protracted trial of four years, also remaining in custody for few days. He would, therefore, only have to pay ₹4,000 as fine, to be treated as compensation paid to the injured policeman, ASI Palwinder Singh, she added.

Rahul Kumar, from Jharkhand, riding pillion on Bhagirath’s motorcycle, however, was acquitted as “there is nothing on record to show that Rahul had instigated... Bhagirath to cause injury to the police official or prevented him from performing his official duty,” the court said.

A police party present near the Phase 4 gurdwara in Mohali on March 29, 2015, was checking vehicles when Bhagirath and Rahul Kumar passed by on a motorcycle, hitting Palwinder Singh as they tried to flee when signalled to stop.

As the injured ASI was taken to the civil hospital in phase 6, Mohali, an FIR was registered under Sections 279, 337,186,332,353 of IPC in the Phase 1 police station.

Bhagirath’s plea for acquittal claiming he had been falsely implicated and that there were contradictions in the statement of prosecution witnesses who are all policemen, was dismissed by the court.“Minor discrepancies are bound to occur when witnesses depose after gap of almost four years. The law is well settled that none of the witness is expected to depose in parrot like manner as it would be case of tutored witness. Moreover, human memory fades with gap of time and such like discrepancies are expected to occur,” the court said.

None of the witnesses disputed the identity of the motorcycle and the accused, it added.