Himachal Pradesh: Cong MLA acquitted in Dalit woman murder case

Chandigarh: Himachal Congress MLA Ram Kumar Chaudhary was on Thursday acquitted of charges of murdering a former woman employee by a court in Panchkula.

District and Sessions Judge Roopam Singh acquitted the MLA from Doon constituency and five others citing “discrepancies” in evidence produced by police.

Six others charged for various offences including cheating and forgery and also harbouring and helping Chaudhary when he was absconding after the 2012 incident have also been acquitted by the court.

Chaudhary had been charged with murdering 24-year-old Jyoti, his former employee. The Dalit girl of Bhunga village in Hoshiarpur was found dead with her head smashed on a road in Sector 21, Panchkula, on 21 November, 2012.

Haryana Police had claimed that Chaudhary had relations with the woman. It was also alleged that she became pregnant and her abortion was done at Chaudhary’s behest, but the prosecution failed to establish it.

Some witnesses had turned hostile during the trial of the case.

The court had over a year back framed charges of murder against the Congress MLA, eight months after his name figured in the case.

The young woman was initially believed to have been killed in an accident, but later investigations revealed that she was murdered and her mobile phone records led police to Chaudhary.

Chaudhary was elected on a Congress ticket from Solan district’s Doon constituency in the last assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh.

PTI