Shimla, July 26 (IANS) The Himachal Pradesh High Court Monday decided to deliver its order later on the cancellation of bail granted to four medical students accused of ragging first year student Aman Kachru last year leading to his death.
Justice D.D. Sud decided to deliver the order Wednesday after hearing both the parties for more than four hours in the open court.
Earlier last week, court took suo motu cognizance of the bail granted by a trial court to accused Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma.
Justice Sud Thursday asked the government why their bail should not be cancelled.
The accused were granted bail by a Dharamsala fast-track court July 17, after 16 months of custody.
Counsel for the accused argued that Kachru could have died due to some heart disease and not injuries related to ragging.
Justifying the bail granted to the accused by the trial court, they said the accused were granted bail after the recording of the statement of most of the witnesses.
‘Statement of 26 witnesses has been recorded so far and now only the statements of some doctors and police personnel are to be recorded. Moreover, they are not likely to be influenced by the accused,’ said a defence counsel.
Contesting their contentions, Advocate General R.K. Bawa said the post-mortem report of Kachru conducted by a team of the Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (in Shimla) ruled out the possibility of any heart disease.
Since the accused – Naveen, Abhinav and Mukul – have already been facing cases related to rioting, criminal intimidation and trespassing, the order of bail suffers from judicial impropriety and illegality, he said.
The statements recorded so far have clearly linked Kachru’s death to ragging, Bawa added.
Kachru, 19, died 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 in Kangra district.
The high court in its hearing Saturday restrained the trial court from passing any order related to bail given to the four students.
