Body at forest resort: Mohali court denies anticipatory bail to Lt Col Sandhu

MohaliIn yet another blow to Lt Col BS Sandhu (retd), chairman of Worldwide Immigration Consultancy Services (WWICS) and owner of Forest Hill Resort in Nayagaon, a Mohali court on Wednesday dismissed his plea for anticipatory bail in the case of murder of a Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU) staffer.

Sandhu, who has been untraceable, was told to join investigations after police arrested three employees of his resort on March 26 for allegedly killing the 28-year-old Burail man and disposing of his body in Pinjore.

Victim Abhishek Guleria had been missing since leaving a relative’s house in Nayagaon late on March 13. The employees had claimed they found Guleria’s body in a septic tank at the resort on March 22 and were told to dispose it of by Sandhu.

On April 12, the Punjab and Haryana high court had rejected Sandhu’s anticipatory bail plea, calling it “premature” as the plea moved in the lower court on April 5 was still pending.

Now, with the local court dismissing the plea, Sandhu will have to join investigations, unless he moves another plea in the HC and gets relief.

Sandhu’s contention

Sandhu had moved the plea, claiming false implication. He had stated that the arrested employees — liasoning officer Gurvinder Bains, his assistant Tarsem Singh and security in-charge Balwinder Singh — were working at a junior level and he had no interaction with them.Moreover, Sandhu claimed in the plea that he did not know the victim.

Opposing the plea, the public prosecutor stated that Sandhu’s statement is crucial for the investigations. The police reportedly found an audio recording on the phone of Gurvinder Bains, in which Sandhu can be heard allegedly instructing employees to dispose of the body.

Bains has already declined to give his voice samples to police on April 9. Police have to move a fresh application to seek directions to the accused to give the samples for matching them with the voice recording.

The three accused — who were booked under Sections 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code — are in judicial custody.