Punjab HC upholds life sentence to hotelier's murderers

Chandigarh, Oct 16 (IANS) The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday upheld the conviction and life sentence slapped on four people, including a close relative of an Akali Dal leader, for the sensational murderer of a hotelier in Jalandhar in 2011.The victim was shot at in front of his father on April 21, 2011, and counsel for his father had told the court that it was "cold-blooded murder". The District and Sessions Judge of Gurdaspur had sentenced accused Ram Simran Singh Makkar, alias Prince Makkar, Sunny Sachdeva, Jasdeep Singh and Amarpreet Singh Narula to life imprisonment after convicting them for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention.The incident was an embarrassment for the state's then Akali Dal-led government as its Jalandhar legislator Sarabjit Makkar's nephew Prince Makkar, who was a SAD councillor, was among the accused.
--IANS vg/vd