9 get 7-yr term for attempt to murder

LUDHIANA: Nine persons were sentenced to seven yearsa?? imprisonment for attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy on Wednesday.
A fine of Rs 5,000 was also slapped against the accused. While a few of the convicted are employees of Indian Railways, others had retired from the same department. All of them belong to Lucknow.
Those convicted were identified as Chakarpal Singh, Tej Bahadur Singh, Virinder Singh, Hari Nath Parshad Pandey, Ashok Kumar Pandey, all residents of Alam Bagh in Lucknow, Manjit Singh, Mohammad Ibrahim and Des Raj.
On April 20, 2002, Vipan Chand Sharma had got an FIR registered against the accused. He was reportedly working as a chief ticket inspector and was also the secretary of Uttariya Railway Mazdoor Union (URMU).
There was a dispute regarding the post of secretary of the union after the earlier incumbent R S Tiwari retired.
In his statement to cops, Vipan said after Tiwari, the office of secretary was managed by T P Vajpayee but this was not acceptable to Hari Nath Parshad Pandey, who was the assistant secretary of URMU as he wanted to be the branch secretary.
He told cops that Ashok Pandey, the vice-president of URMU, was siding H N Pandey and they were pressurising him to go along and support him too. He alleged that they even had arguments with him regarding the issue. Vipan told police that he returned to Ludhiana from New Delhi on April 19, 2002 and had visited the URMU office in the city. While on his way back, four persons on a motorcycle and scooter suddenly started following him. When he reached near gate no 9 of residential colony, one of the riders fired a shot at him, which he missed, he said, adding that they fired six to seven shots at his thigh, shoulder and abdomen.
On the statement of Vipan, investigation was ensued and after 10 years of this incident, all accused were convicted by court.