The Himachal Pradesh High Court today upheld the jail terms awarded to the college mates of Aman Kachroo, the 19-year-old medical student who had succumbed to serious injuries after being ragged by his seniors in 2009.
On November 11, 2010, a Kangra court had awarded four year jail terms to the accused -- Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma -- besides imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 each, to be given to the victim's family.
The division bench comprising Justices R B Mishra and Surinder Singh Thakur, however, set aside state government's petition seeking enhancement of sentence of the convicts and a murder trail against them under Section 302.
The High Court upheld their conviction under Sections 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Section 342 (wrongful confinement) and Section 352 (assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation).
It, however, acquitted the four of charges under Sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation).
The court also enhanced the amount of penalty imposed on the convicts from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh each.
19-year-old Kachroo, a first-year MBBS student at the Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College in Tanda, Kangra, was severely beaten up during ragging by his seniors, who were allegedly in an inebriated state.
He was rushed to the hospital the next day where he died.
The postmortem report showed the teenager died of brain hemorrhage.
The Court had resumed trial against the accused students in August 2010 after they surrendered following cancellation of their bail applications.
