A court here on Wednesday awarded life sentence to Harmehtab Singh Rarewala in the 2017 murder case of Akansh Sen, the nephew of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh's wife Pratibha.
The Additional District and Sessions judge Rajeev Goyal pronounced the verdict holding Harmehtab Singh Rarewala, an accused in the case, guilty on Monday after a two-year long trial that was concluded in October.
"Harmehtab Singh Rarewala has been sentenced to life imprisonment till death by the court. A fine of Rs 3 lakh has also been imposed on the convict," said Terminder Singh, the counsel of complainant Adamya Rathaur, who is Sen's cousin.
Harmehtab Singh Rarewala was held guilty under section 302 (murder) of the IPC, Singh said.
The convict is the grandson of the erstwhile Patiala and East Punjab States Union (PEPSU) chief minister Gian Singh Rarewala. PEPSU was a union of eight princely states that existed between 1948 and 1956.
Sen died after being mowed down by a BMW car following an altercation here in February 2017.
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The accused Balraj Singh Randhawa, who was declared a proclaimed offender, ran his car over Sen thrice after being instigated by Harmehtab Singh Rarewala who was sitting on the front passenger seat, according to prosecution.
Sen, who was 28 at that time, was rushed to a local hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
Randhawa is a son of former Sarpanch of Fatehgarh Sahib and has been absconding since the murder took place. Harmehtab Singh Rarewala was arrested on February 16, 2017.
There was old enmity between Harmehtab Singh Rarewala and Sen's friend Gagandeep.
On February 9, 2017, Harmehtab Singh Rarewala and his friends had gone to a party at a common friend's house in sector 9 here where Gagandeep too was present.
There was an altercation between Sen and Harmehtab Singh Rarewala after the former accused him of misbehaving with Gagandeep, as per prosecution.
A furious Harmehtab Singh Rarewala instigated Randhawa to run over Sen. When Sen did not die after the first hit, Harmehtab Singh Rarewala asked Randhawa to crush Sen again under the wheels of the car.
Three eye witnesses-- Adamya Rathaur (Sen's cousin), Rajan Papneja (Sen's friend) and Karan Yog (Adamya's friend) gave their statements.
During the trial, the defence counsel had argued that Harmehtab Singh Rarewala was falsely implicated in the case.
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