Four seniors given 4 year jail in ragging case

Four medical students were Thursday sentenced to four years in jail by a fast track court after they were held guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for ragging to death their junior Aman Kachroo in Himachal Pradesh last year. Additional district and sessions judge Purinder Vaidyahad did not entertain the prosecution plea for convicting the four students of murder under section 302 IPC for which the punishment is a life term. All the four students--Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma--were convicted earlier in the day under relevant sections of IPC 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 452 (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and 34 (common intention) of IPC. The judgement came 20 months after the Kachroo ragging incident which had triggered an uproar and led the state government to come out a legislation making ragging a cognisable, non-bailable offence.
The maximum punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder was ten years but the court awarded a four-year jail term after hearing the arguments of Defence and the Prosecution. Special Public Prosecutor Jiwan Lal Sharma told media that the four students should have been convicted under Section 302. Aman Kachroo (19), a first year MMBS student at Dr Rajindra Prasad Government Medical College at Tanda, 15 km from Dharamshala in Kangra district, succumbed to injuries on 8th March 2009 after being ragged by the four drunken Final year students.