Attack on Dhadrianwale: Trial of 14 accused begins in murder case

PATIALA: Trial of the men accused of the May 17 attack on Sikh preacher Ranjit Singh

Dhadrianwale

has started in the court of additional sessions judge Gurnam Singh in Ludhiana.

In the attack on Dhadrianwale's car near Ludhiana, his aide Bhupinder Singh was killed. The next date of hearing is September 30. Earlier, judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) Insaan committed the case to the court of the additional sessions judge for trial.

Advocate G S Bal, representing the 14 accused, told TOI over the phone on Wednesday that the lower court on Tuesday had wrongly included the names of two minors, aged 16 and 17 respectively, in the challan presented to the sessions court. "The minors are supposed to be put to trial in a juvenile court, not the sessions court. The prosecution will have to present a supplementary challan," he said.

Dhadrianwale had accused the police of a shoddy probe in the attack and had moved the Punjab and Haryana high court for transferring the case to CBI. The matter is pending.

The 14 accused lodged in Nabha jail of Patiala district were booked under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 427 (damage to something costing more than Rs 50), 149 and 148 (rioting and unlawful assembly of more than five persons) of the IPC. They were also booked under sections 25 and 27 of the Arms Act for possessing and using a .315 bore rifle. Dhadrianwale, who has his dera in Patiala district, had been vociferously saying that the real conspirators were not booked. He had accused the students of chief of the Sikh seminary Damdami Taksal, Harnam Singh Dhumma, of instigating the accused to attack him.