Court finds Pauri municipality chairman & two others guilty, sentence to be pronounced on Nov 28
Saturday, 19 November 2022 | PNS | PAURI
The court of Pauri district chief judicial magistrate Ravi Prakash has found Pauri municipality chairman Yashpal Benam, advocate Ashok Bisht and Sarita Negi guilty under sections 353, 504, 506 of Indian Penal Code in a case of April 2017 on Friday. The court will undertake proceedings to pronounce the punishment on November 28 after the report of district probation officer. The court has instructed the district probation officer to submit the report of all three on November 26. All the three Yashpal Benam, Ashok Bisht and Sarita Negi have been allowed interim bail till the date of the pronouncement of the punishment.
It is pertinent to mention that the then district excise officer Prabha Shankar Mishra had lodged a first information report on April 27, 2017 against the Pauri municipality chairman Yashpal Benam, Ashok Bisht and Sarita Negi stating that the trio had misbehaved, abused and issued death threat to him in the the presence of the then district magistrate and senior superintendent of police in meeting organized by district administration on April 24, 2017.The police had registered a case against the three accused under section 332 and 504 of IPC. The charge sheet was submitted in the court on July 5, 2017. The accused surrendered in the court on August 9, 2017 and had submitted bail applications on the next day but the same was rejected by the court. The accused moved the session court for bail but the session court also rejected the bail application. The Uttarakhand High Court granted all accused bail on September 4, 2017 and on the next day the trio came out of the Jail. The court changed the sections in the case to sections 353, 504 and 606 of IPC.
During the hearing, the prosecution produced more than eight witnesses including journalist Pramod Khanduri who had captured the incident on video and stated that the FIR had been registered by the district official after securing the permission of the then district magistrate. All the three accused denied the allegations. The CJM Ravi Prakash gave the verdict that all accused are guilty and the hearing of pronouncement of the punishment will be held on November 28 after getting the report from the district probation officer.
