NEW DELHI: The Personal Security Officer (PSO) who opened fire and killed a judge’s wife and son in 2018 was awarded the death sentence by a Gurugram court on Friday. Mahipal, the then PSO of Additional Sessions Judge Krishan Kant Sharma gunned down judge’s wife Ritu (38) and 18-year-old son Dhruv.
Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Sudheer Parmar also awarded five years rigorous imprisonment and Rs 10,000 fine for destruction of evidence and another three years imprisonment and Rs 5,000 fine
under Arms Act to the 38-year-old.
As a government servant, he was responsible to protect them. Instead, he breached their trust and gunned them down, the judge noted as Singh, maintained a stoic silence and kept his head bowed.
On October 13, 2018, Mahipal was accompanying Ritu and Dhruv to the market when an argument ensued and he allegedly pulled his service revolver and fired at them. While Ritu died of her injuries the same night, Dhruv died ten days later.
The defence counsel had argued that the shooting was accidental as Mahipal tried to snatch a gun from Dhruv but this plea was rejected by the court or the want of evidence. The court took various videos of shooting posted online into account in addition to statements of the eye-witnesses present at shopping arcade besides forensic evidence.
In the videos posted online, Mahipal can be seen trying to drag Dhruv’s body into the car in which the family came to the market. Upon failing to do so, he dumped the body and fled but was caught by Gurugram police two hours later.