DEHRADUN: District and Sessions Court, Nainital has suspended the 2-year rigorous imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine imposed on the principal of prestigious Sherwood College in the case of the death of a Nepalese student in 2014.
On June 29, the Nainital Chief Judicial Magistrate Court convicted college principal Amandeep Sandhu and two others under 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.
Nepal’s Shaan Prajapati (14) died in November 2014 due to medical negligence allegedly on the part of school authorities.
In in his July 1 order, Sessions Judge Rajendra Joshi stated, “After looking into the facts and circumstances of the case, the court suspends the sentence and fine against Amandeep Sandhu.”
The court had also convicted Sandhu and two other staff from the school under the section awarding the sentence of two years rigorous imprisonment and imposed Rs 50,000 fine each.
The case against school authorities under section 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered after the teenager’s death on complaint of Neena Shrestha, deceased’s mother.
After conviction, the principal had appealed in the district and sessions court requesting the suspension of the sentence by the CJM court.
The school boasts illustrious alumni list with names like Field Marshal General Sam Manekshaw, first Paramveer Chakra recipient Major Somnath Sharma, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Ram Kapoor, Dalip Tahil, Kabir Bedi, Indian politician Jitendra Prasad, Pakistani journalist Kaleem Omar and many more.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Kathmandu in November, 2014 to attend the SAARC summit, protestors gathered in Kathmandu city holding banners written ‘Nyay Shaan Ko Laagi’ in Nepali language which means ‘Justice For Shaan’ in English.
A series of protests broke out after Prajapati’s death, prompting the then women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi to request an inquiry by the human resources development ministry in a letter dated November 24, 2014.
The protests were organized simultaneously in Delhi, Lucknow, Nainital, Agra, Haldwani, Rurapur, Kanpur, Bareilly, Bhopal, Dehradun, Kolkata, Chandigarh and many other cities.
Campaign titled, ‘Justice For Shaan’ was also launched on various social networking platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp.