Chhatrasal Stadium Murder Case- High Court Seeks Delhi Police's Response On Plea For Transfer Of Trial From Rohini Court

The Delhi High Court has sought the response of the Delhi Police on a plea seeking transfer of trial in the Chhatrasal Stadium Murder case from city's Rohini Court to some other district court in the interest of safety of the victims and prosecution witnesses for a fair and impartial trial as also an 'in-camera' day-to-day hearing in the matter.

The case relates to the death of former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankhar. Wrestler Sushil Kumar is one of the accused in the matter.

Justice Mukta Gupta was dealing with a plea filed by victims and prosecution witnesses in the case who alleged being mercilessly beaten by more than 20 gangsters of various gangs of the city when the alleged incident took place which resulted into death of one of victims namely Sagar Dhankar.

The plea has been moved through Advocates Pallavi Pipaniya, Paras Punyani, Deepak Mathur, Sandeep Kumar, Akash Sethi, Nikita Garg, Imtiyaz Hussain, Aditya Sharma and Lakshay Tomar.

Advocate Ajay Kumar Pipaniya appeared for the petitioners in the matter.

The Court perused the additional affidavit filed by the petitioners indicating as to why they were seeking transfer of the trial from Rohini District Courts. The Court found that the only reason taken in the affidavit was that the petitioners felt more vulnerable while coming near the Rohini Court area due to Chhatrasal Stadium being nearby.

Accordingly, the Court ordered thus:

"A status report will be filed by the State in respect of Para 7 of the additional Affidavit under the signatures of the DCP concerned."

The matter is now listed for further hearing on 25th April, 2022.

According to the petition, it has been alleged that the the co-accused persons in the case were notorious criminals who were either based nearby areas of Rohini District Court or to the adjoining borders of Haryana having complete knowledge about the Rohini area.

The petitioners alleged that there was great apprehension in their mind that it wouldn't be safe and secure for them for going to the deposition in the Rohini Courts Complex.

"That the investigating agency has made 150 witnesses in the present matter and the testimony of 150 witnesses would take a long time period to complete the trial, therefore the petitioners will end up visiting the court for years for justice and such delay in proceedings violates the petitioners right to life and personal liberty and leads to mental anguish. Their worry, anxiety, expense and disturbance due to undue delay should be minimised," the plea reads.

Sushil Kumar was arrested from Delhi last year. His associate, Ajay Kumar, a physical education teacher at Chhatrasal Stadium, was also arrested from the Mundka area.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR under sec. 302 (punishment for murder) and sec. 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 365 (abduction), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 34 and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC along with sec. 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

Reportedly, Sagar, who had been training at the iconic Chhatrasal Stadium, died while two of his friends got injured after they were allegedly assaulted by Sushil Kumar and some other wrestlers on May 4, 2021, at the Chhatrasal Stadium premises in Delhi. 

Title: AMIT KUMAR AND ORS v. STATE (GOVT OF NCT OF DELHI) AND ANR