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2 ABVP activists who snatched car to rush V-C to hospital get bail from HC
Justice Sunita Yadav of the high court observed that the offence was not driven by criminal intentions but to save a life, said lawyer Bhanu Pratap Singh Chauhan
BHOPAL: Two Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) members arrested on December 11 for snatching a judge’s car to rush an ailing university vice-chancellor to hospital have been granted bail by the Gwalior bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court, people familiar with the matter said.
The two student activists, Himanshu Shrotri and Sukrit Sharma were arrested under the state’s stringent law for dacoities on December 11 and their first request for bail was rejected by Gwalior’s district and sessions court on December 13.
Justice Sunita Yadav of the high court granted bail on humanitarian grounds, saying that the offence was not driven by criminal intentions but to save a life, said lawyer Bhanu Pratap Singh Chauhan.
According to the police, the two ABVP activists were travelling on Dakshin Express from Delhi to Jhansi on December 10 after participating in the students’ body’s national convention in the national capital.
Ranjit Singh (59), vice-chancellor of PK University in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri, was also on the train. Police said the vice chancellor fell ill at some point past midnight.
When the train reached Gwalior station at about 3:45am, the two students helped him out and decided to accompany him to the hospital. But when they could not find any ambulance outside the railway station, they took over a car of a high court judge parked on the porch and rushed him to the hospital.
Prof Singh reached a hospital but did not survive what doctors later described as a massive heart attack.
The judge’s driver meanwhile filed a formal police complaint against the two ABVP activists.
Former chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan came out in support of the two ABVP activists and wrote to the Madhya Pradesh high court chief justice Ravi Malimath to request that the court take a lenient view of the case. “This crime has been committed with the intention of providing cooperation on humanitarian grounds and saving lives. This is a crime, but it is also forgivable,” Chouhan said in the letter to the chief justice.
Chief minister Mohan Yadav also disapproved of slapping dacoity charges on the two men on Saturday (December 16). “We will provide full help to the students. In case of crime, police should not act hastily. There is a need to avoid applying serious charges immediately,” the chief minister said. “Police should reinvestigate the matter.”
