Rejecting the closure report of the Chandigarh Police against the prime accused, Balraj Singh Randhawa, in the eight-year-old high-profile Akansh Sen murder case, a local court has directed the police to investigate the matter further and submit the final report at the earliest.
The police had filed an untraced report two months ago in the District Courts against Randhawa, who is absconding since 2017.
Sen, nephew of a former Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister, the late Virbhadra Singh, was killed on the night of February 9, 2017, after being run over by a BMW car in Sector 9, Chandigarh.
Randhawa, who was allegedly driving the vehicle, fled from the spot, while his friend Harmehtab Singh, also in the car, was arrested later.
As per the police, accused Randhawa ran his car over Sen thrice after being instigated by Harmehtab Singh, who was sitting on the front passenger seat. Randhawa is a son of a former sarpanch of Fatehgarh Sahib and has been absconding since the murder took place.
Harmehtab Singh was arrested on February 16, 2017. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019 in the case.
In the status report submitted before the court in October 2024, the police said Randhawa had managed to flee India.
The police said the matter was taken up with Interpol and the location of the accused was found to be in Canada. The police said Randhawa’s property had already been attached.
The police had filed the untraced report in the case two months ago, which was opposed by Jayender S Chandail, counsel for the complainant. While appearing before the court, the counsel placed on record a report of the Crime Branch police station. He submitted that as per this report, accused Randhawa was in Canada and his extradition proceedings were being initiated by the office concerned.
After hearing the arguments, the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate said, “A perusal of the case file shows that the present untraced report was filed by the investigating officer with the submission that raids were conducted in the native village as well as other possible places of accused Randhawa, but no clue was found and the case being old, the present untraced report was prepared. It is surprising that this untraced report was accepted by the DSP (Central) on July 10, 2025, whereas a contradictory report was given with regard to the same accused in some other court by the police station. In these circumstances, the present case file is returned for further investigation. The investigating officer of this FIR is directed to look into the report submitted by the police station in the court of the Judicial Magistrate First Class, Chandigarh, and investigate the matter accordingly and submit the final report at the earliest