HC grants bail to 4 Mewat residents

CHANDIGARH:THE Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday granted bail to four persons arrested by the Haryana Police in an August 2016 rape and murder case in Mewat.

The police had arrested the four men — Sandip, Amarjeet, Karamjeet and Rahul Verma — of a neighbouring village for alleged rape and murder case that took place in Dingarheri on the intervening night of August 24 and 25, 2016. A couple was killed and their two nieces, one of them just 16-year-old, were gangraped. The four were arrested within four days of crime.

The bail was granted by high court bench of justice Surinder Gupta after a sealed cover report on their ‘role’ in the crime was submitted by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) counsel, Sumeet Goel, who reiterated that CBI had not given a ‘clean chit’ to them and investigation was on.

The bench, while deferring the hearing till six weeks, asked CBI to submit a fresh status report on their ‘role’ and gave interim bail to these four.

On the last date of hearing on February 27, the court had sought an affidavit from the CBI specifying their role in the crime after the agency refused to give them clean chit and opposed bail to these persons. The four had moved HC seeking bail on February 12. The case was handed over to CBI in December 2016.

Sumeet Goel reiterated during Wednesday’s hearing that these four men were identified as accused by the victim in the identification parade. They should not be given bail. “Their role is being examined,” he told court.