The District and Sessions Court here on Thursday held the personal security officer (PSO) of a judicial official guilty for murder of the latter’s wife and teenage son in October 2018. The judgment came about a year after framing of charges in January last year.

Pronouncing the verdict, Additional District and Sessions Judge Sudhir Parmar held PSO Mahipal guilty of murder and destruction of evidence under the Indian Penal Code and for use of arms in contravention of the law under the Arms Act. The accused was present in the court.

Welcoming the verdict, public prosecutor Anurag Hooda said the Gurugram police did a commendable job in evidence collection leading to the conviction in record time. “The then Commissioner of Police, K.K. Rao, constituted a Special Investigation Team soon after the incident leading to the arrest of the accused in less than two hours. The SIT was reconstituted the next day to add more police personnel to expedite the investigation and the collection of evidence,” he said.

Mr. Hooda said the prosecution produced 64 witnesses, including two eyewitnesses, and the CCTV footage and videos of the incident doing rounds on social media were also important evidence.

Besides, the blood group of Dhruv matched with the bloodstains on the uniform of the accused who had also made extra-judicial confession to the deceased’s father additional district and sessions judge Krishant Kant and co-PSO constable Vinay Kumar.

The court has fixed February 7 for arguments on the quantum of sentence in the case. Complainant’s lawyer Vishal Gupta said the prosecution would seek maximum punishment, which is death under Section 302 of the IPC, as the case fell in the category of the rarest of the rare.

Defence lawyer Prem Shankar Sharma said the deaths were caused due to accidental firing during scuffle between Mahipal and Dhruv and the case, at the most, attracted charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. He said he would go for further appeal in the case.