18-year-old assault victim dies, seven booked in Patiala

PATIALA : At least seven persons have been booked on charges of culpable homicide (not amounting to murder) after an 18-yearold man succumbed to his injuries on Sunday.

Victim Sapinder Singh of Chanarthal village in Fatehgarh Sahib was attacked by group of young men on June 5 purportedly over old enmity, and was admitted to Government Rajindra Hospital here. Harnek Singh, the victim’s father, said that earlier the police had registered case of assault but are yet to arrest any of the assaulters.

Police said Sapinder, a trainee at local mechanic shop, received multiple internal injuries in his stomach and arms. He was discharged from the hospital on June 19 but was readmitted after his conditioned deteriorated on June 30; he breathed his last on Sunday, police said.

Demanding immediate arrest of the assaulters, his family held a protest and alleged that police are pressuring them to “compromise”. Additional station house officer, Civil Lines, Karnail Singh contended that though the case has been registered, “the cause of death is yet to be ascertained”. “A board of doctors has conducted the postmortem. The report is still awaited,” he said, refuting the allegations.

The FIR names Aman Kumar, Rohit Kumar, Rajinder Kumar and Gaurav, while three persons are unidentified; registered under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 148 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code.

VENDOR HELD FOR RAPING 8-YEAR-OLD

BATHINDA: Vicky, 29, a street vendor, was arrested from home after an eight-year-old rape victim identified him from photographs the police showed to her. The child was raped last week, when she had gone out of her house to relieve herself. She was found unconscious.

Addressing a press conference, IGP MF Farooqui said, “Five teams had been formed to crack the case and over 500 photographs were shown to the victim. The accused works as a broom seller and hails from Uttar Pradesh. His wife had died about a year ago.”