A Himachal Pradesh court on Thursday sentenced four young medical students to four years of hard labour for causing the tragic death of freshman Aman Kachru by ragging in March last year.
Dharamsala additional sessions and district judge Purinder Vaidya trimmed the murder charge against Ajay Verma, Naveen Verma, Abhinav Verma and Mukul Sharma, pronouncing them guilty under Section 304(II) of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), and an additional cash fine of `10,000 on each of the accused. If they fail to deposit this, they will get a further three-month jail term.
They were also held guilty under Section 452 IPC (house-trespass after preparation for hurt, assault or wrongful restraint) and Section 34 (common intention).
Lawyers said the four held guilty, who have been held in jail without bail for the past 21 months, will now be required to undergo a further prison term of two years and three months. Defence counsel Abhimanyu Chopra said he would file an appeal against the conviction and the four-year jail sentence.