TIPPA MURDER CASE

Accused gets life term 
Chandigarh, July 17
The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Shalini Nagpal, based on a dying declaration, today awarded life sentence to 30-year-old Minkel Bajaj, alias Balwinder Singh, a businessman from Muktsar, for killing a youth Akali leader from Muktsar in the Sector 9 market here. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 25,000 on Bajaj.
Tripat Deep Singh Sekhon, aka Tippa Sekhon, a youth Akali leader from Muktsar, was shot at the busy Sector 9 market on July 13, 2010.
The court said: “A dying declaration enjoys almost a sacrosanct status, a piece of evidence as it comes from the mouth of a person who is about to die and at that stage, he is not likely to make a false statement. The three proved circumstances in the case -- oral dying declaration of the deceased, call details of the deceased and an established motive are sufficient to bring home the guilt of the accused. There is also evidence in the shape of witnesses that there was political rivalry between the accused and deceased who belonged to the Akali party.”
When Tippa was rushed to hospital, the Akali leader told his sister, her friend and Sub-Inspector Dharampal that Bajaj had shot at him as he wanted to take revenge.
Tippa along with some others had allegedly made an obscene MMS of Bajaj’s sister and circulated it. Though he was initially booked in the case, his name was later dropped from the chargesheet. Bajaj then decided to eliminate Tippa.
The police had arrested Bajaj 15 days after the crime and recovered a .32 revolver and four cartridges from him.
On the day of the murder, Tippa had come to the Sector 7 house of his cousin Paramjit Kaur. At 4.10 pm, he received a call on his mobile phone asking him to come to the Sector 9 market. Bajaj then shot at Tippa, who was rushed to the Sector 16 hospital. He was referred to the PGI where he died.

I am innocent

There is no scientific evidence with the prosecution to prove that I committed the murder. I had met senior Akali leaders seeking an inquiry into the MMS scandal regarding my sister, but that was all. I did not kill Tippa and will appeal before the High Court. The CFSL report proved that the weapon which the police recovered from my possession was not the one that was used to shoot him. There is no eyewitness to the murder and I was not even in the city at the time of the murder. It was a sensational case and the police framed me as they were under pressure to solve the case.