Additional district and sessions judge Anshu Shukla, on Tuesday, acquitted all four persons named as accused in the infamous Puneet Sandhu murder case for the lack of evidence.
Puneet (27), was shot at thrice at point blank range at her house in Sector 49 on October 16, 2014 where she was staying with a friend, Amit Chaudhary and was found lying in a pool of blood by Amit.
The police had booked Chaudhary’s sister Anju, her friend Supreet, Anju’s father Ram Lal, and Manpreet Singh alias Lali, who had allegedly provided the weapon of murder. But the prosecution failed to prove the charges of murder (Section 302) and criminal conspiracy (Section 120 B) of Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Accused were booked following the complaint of Puneet’s sister, Avneet Sandhu. In her complaint to the police, Avneet had stated that Chaudhary, a resident of Sector 47, was married and had two children. Yet, he was in a live-in relationship with Puneet, and lived with her in a rented accommodation in Sector 49, Chandigarh.
She had alleged that Chaudhary had promised to marry her sister after divorcing his wife. He also wanted to move Puneet into his parents’ house in Sector 47, bringing him and his kin at loggerheads.
Believing Puneet to be the reason behind the discord in his son’s marriage, Ram Lal had threatened to eliminate her, if she didn’t leave him, Avneet had alleged.
On October 16, 2014, Chaudhary was out to fetch dinner, and on returning, found Puneet lying in a pool of blood, following which he sounded the police.
During the course of investigation, police found that Amit’s sister Anju, a resident of Sector 4, Mansa Devi Complex, Panchkula, hatched the conspiracy to eliminate Puneet in connivance with her friend Supreet. For the plan, she sourced a weapon from accused Manpreet Singh alias Lali for which her father Ram Lal paid.
Police found that after the murder, Supreet visited Anju at her Mansa Devi house and also made several calls to her. Police had then claimed that during the sustained interrogation, Supreet and Anju eventually confessed to their crime, and a country made pistol used to murder Puneet was recovered from his house.
