Public prosecutor Anurag Hooda said, “He has been charged under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence of offence) and Section 27 of the Arms Act, as the crime was committed with his service revolver.” (Representational image)Almost three months after a personal security officer (PSO) opened fire at the wife and son of judge Kishan Kant Sharma, whom he had been deployed to protect, charges against him were framed by a district court in Gurgaon on Wednesday.
Public prosecutor Anurag Hooda said, “He has been charged under IPC sections 302 (murder) and 201 (disappearance of evidence of offence) and Section 27 of the Arms Act, as the crime was committed with his service revolver.”
The chargesheet in the case had been filed on December 26, and included accounts of 81 witnesses, including eyewitnesses, doctors, ballistic experts and the judge himself. “We have sufficient evidence to prove the case of the prosecution. The next hearing in the matter is on February 1,” said Hooda.
The incident took place on the afternoon of October 13, when PSO Mahipal opened fire on Sharma’s 37-year-old wife Ritu and 18-year-old son Dhruv, at Arcadia market in the city’s Sector 49. While Ritu succumbed to her injuries the same night, Dhruv died 10 days later.
Mahipal was arrested the same evening, as he tried to flee the scene in the judge’s vehicle. Videos recorded by bystanders showed him trying to haul Dhruv into the white Honda City, before he gave up and sped away. Four days after the incident, police revealed that his struggle with the body was an attempt to “eliminate evidence”.
Officials also stated the violence had taken place in the spur of the moment, after Ritu and Dhruv rebuked Mahipal for being untraceable, when they returned to their vehicle after shopping. Dhruv then asked Mahipal for the car keys, following which the two got into an argument, and ended with the PSO shooting both mother and son. He had been posted as the judge’s PSO for one-and-a-half years before the incident.
