Turning down the closure report filed by the Chandigarh Police against prime accused Balraj Singh Randhawa in the eight-year-old Akansh Sen murder case, a local court has ordered further probe into the case and directed the police to submit the final report at the earliest.
The police had submitted an untraced report in the District Courts two months back, stating that Randhawa, who has been absconding since 2017, could not be located.
Akansh Sen, who was the nephew of former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister late Virbhadra Singh, was killed on the night of February 9, 2017, after being run over by a BMW car in Sector 9, Chandigarh.
Accused Randhawa, who was reportedly driving the car, is a son of a former sarpanch from Fatehgarh Sahib. He fled the spot after the incident, while his friend Harmehtab Singh, who was also present in the vehicle, was detained later.
According to the police, Randhawa ran his car over the victim three times after being instigated by Harmehtab Singh, who was seated in the front passenger seat. Randhawa has remained absconding since the crime.
Harmehtab was detained by the police on February 16, 2017. He was convicted in the case and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.
In a status report submitted by the police before the court in October 2024, it stated that Randhawa had managed to flee the country.
The police said the matter was taken up with Interpol and Randhawa’s location was traced to Canada. They also informed the court that his property had already been attached.
The untraced report filed by the police was opposed by the complainant’s counsel, Jayender S Chandail. During the hearing, he placed on record a report from the Crime Branch police station.
The counsel submitted that, according to the Crime Branch report, Randhawa was living in Canada and that extradition proceedings had already been initiated by the authorities concerned.
After hearing the arguments, the Chief Judicial Magistrate observed “A perusal of the case file shows that the present untraced report was filed by the investigating officer with the submission that raids were conducted in the native village as well as other possible places of accused Randhawa, but no clue was found and the case being old, the present untraced report was prepared. It is surprising that this untraced report was accepted by the DSP (Central) on July 10, 2025, whereas a contradictory report was given with regard to the same accused in some other court by the police station. In these circumstances, the present case file is returned for further investigation. The investigating officer of this FIR is directed to look into the report submitted by the police station in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Chandigarh, and investigate the matter accordingly and submit the final report at the earliest.”
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