Times News NetworkChandigarh: A Chandigarh court on Friday sentenced three convicts — Shubham alias Bigni, Manjeet alias Mota and Rajan alias Jaat — to life imprisonment in the Sept 2019 murder of property dealer Rajveer Singh alias Sonu Shah.Gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, Dharmendra Singh, Abhishek alias Bunty, Raju Basodi and Deepak Ranga were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 22,000 each on the three convicts.On Sept 28, 2019, gunmen barged into Sonu Shah’s office in Sector 45 and fired 14 rounds, killing him and injuring his aides, Joginder Singh and Parminder Singh. In a voice message that surfaced on social media, Raju Basodi claimed responsibility for the murder on behalf of the Lawrence gang.The Chandigarh Police crime branch filed a chargesheet against eight accused, stating that the murder was plotted through a network operating from prison. Joginder and Parminder were listed as eyewitnesses.During the trial, however, police could not produce Joginder in court, nor clarify whether he was alive or dead. They told the court that an extensive search yielded no trace of him. His wife, Sunita, said they had been living separately for 12 to 13 years and that she had no knowledge of his whereabouts. Police said Joginder’s ancestral village in Jind also had no information about him.The second eyewitness, Parminder, died during trial. Police submitted a report on his death on Jan 19, 2026, following which his name was removed from the witness list. The court then closed the prosecution evidence.During proceedings, hotel manager Chandan and employee Vipin failed to identify accused Dharmendra in court. There were other lapses on the part of UT police as well.Defence lawyer Amit Khairwal argued that police did not seize the CCTV footage from the day of the shooting. Voice samples linked to the suspect audio message were not sent to a forensic lab. He said Dharmendra’s signature and Aadhaar details appeared in the Sector 80, Mohali hotel register and that a handwriting report was positive, but the register later went missing from police records.According to the defence, the complainant and victim’s brother, Praveen Shah, could identify only the three convicted men in court, and police failed to produce concrete evidence against the other accused.MSID: 128611665 413 |
