A Panchkula court on Monday framed charges against Ram Kumar Chaudhary, the suspended Congress MLA from Himachal Pradesh’s Doon constituency, for the murder of a Dalit girl from Hoshiarpur in Punjab.
The charges are under IPC Sections 302 (murder), 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 471 (using forged document), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information) and the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
The court rejected the bail plea of Chaudhary, who pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Chaudhary contended that the Panchkula police had not corroborated the evidence against him. The court said the trial against Chaudhary would begin on August 22.
Jyoti Kumari, a former employee of Chaudhary, was found dead with her head smashed on a road in sector 21, Panchkula on November 22,2012.
As per the post-mortem report, Jyoti had had an abortion before dying of head injuries.
Chaudhary, who is also general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Congress Committee, had been absconding but later surrendered before the court which remanded him in judicial custody. Chaudhary is the son of Lajja Ram, a four-time Congress MLA.