CBI frames charges against 8 in 2017 double murder case

The accused fired indiscriminately at Satbir Punia, 40, and Amit Saharan, 38, in the office of a kinnow waxing plant of Pradeep Godara at Chautala village in Sirsa district on January 12, 2017

A special court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has framed charges in the January 2017 double murder at Chautala village in Haryana’s Sirsa district, where two men were gunned down at a kinnow waxing plant.

Two men were shot dead at a kinnow waxing plant in Sirsa district of Haryana in January 2017. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The court of Sushil Kumar Garg, the special CBI judge at Panchkula, framed charges under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code against Chhotu Ram Bhat, Mahendra, alias Gangajal, Sukhwinder, alias Minda, Mukhram, alias Kalu, Sukhdeep Singh, Harsimrandeep Singh and Sukhpreet Singh, alias Budha. Charges under Section 506, read with Section 149, of the IPC were also framed against Ravinder.

“A prima facie case for commission of offences punishable under Section 25 of the Arms Act is made out against accused Harsimrandeep Singh, Sukhpreet Singh, Chhotu Ram Bhat, Mukhram and Mahendra,” the court said.

The case was argued by senior public prosecutor KP Singh. The court summoned prosecution witnesses on the next date of hearing on July 16. The accused, who are in jail, will be produced through video-conference.

The FIR was registered at Dabwali Sadar police station on January 12, 2017.

In 2018, the Punjab and Haryana high court had directed the CBI to probe, after Navina, the wife of Amit Saharan, requested for transferring the investigation of the case. The CBI filed a chargesheet on December 15, 2020.