Eighteen months after the brutal assault on 23-year-old African student Yannick Nihangaza that left him comatose, a local court today awarded 10 years rigorous imprisonment to seven persons in the case.
Additional District and Session Judge B K Sharma also imposed a penalty of Rs 20,000 each on the convicts Romi Uppal, Sahildeep Singh, Amandeep Singh, Sumant Ralhan, Amarbeer Singh, Harsh Gosain and Jaswant Singh.
Romi is son of a late senior officer of Punjab Police.
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"The accused have been awarded 10-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 each, failing the payment of which they will have to serve two years more in jail," defence counsel Mandeep Sachdeva said.
He said they will challenge the local court's order in Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Yannick, a Burundi citizen and student of a private university, was going to a party in Jalandhar on April 22, 2012 when he was attacked.
While the attackers had managed to flee, Yannick was admitted to a private hospital in Patiala where he is still lying in coma.
After the incident, Ambassador of Burundi Rubuka Aloys had met a senior External Affairs Ministry official seeking legal help in the case.
The police had registered case against nine persons and two of them -- Jaskaran Singh and Ranjot Singh -- are still on the run.
