Compensation awarded in April, but yet to be paid to Capt Ranjot Singh family

Chandigarh, October 12,2013(Shailee Dogra)- Having lost their sons in a road accident in 2011, two families, including that of an Army captain, are still waiting to receive the compensation awarded by the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal ( MACT), Chandigarh. Captain Ranjot Singh Sandhu, along with his friend Ramandeep Singh, was among the four youths killed on August 29, 2011, after their speeding Tata Safari SUV rammed into a tree near the cricket stadium roundabout on the Sector 22/23 dividing road.

Captain Sandhu was commissioned into the 42 Armoured Regiment of the Indian Army in July 2010. He was on leave and had come to SAS Nagar to stay with his maternal aunt, who is a college lecturer. Ramandeep Singh, a resident of Phase 11 in SAS Nagar, was a software engineer. Parents of Captain Sandhu and Ramandeep had moved tribunal, seeking claim under the MACT Act. They had filed the claim against the Tata Safari driver Prabhpreet Singh, who was one of the persons killed in the accident, and Oriental Insurance Company. The tribunal in April had directed the insurance company to pay 61.38 lakh to the family Captain Sandhu, while compensation of`28.45 lakh was awarded to family of Ramandeep. “We have filed the execution petition seeking release of the award money that would come up for hearing on October 19,” said advocate Ashwani Arora.

Captain Sandhu, posted in hometown Amritsar, along with his six friends, was returning from the party when they met with an accident on August 29, 2011, in which four persons had died, while two others sustained injuries.

Captain Sandhu, along with his friends Prabhpreet (driver of the Safari), Ramandeep and Abhinet Pal Singh, had died on the spot, while two of their friends Prabhkiran Singh had sustained a spine fracture, and Amandeep had miraculously escape with minor bruises.

According to the police, the six were returning from a party at a restaurant in Sector 35, after which they then went to Sukhna Lake, and were en route to drop a friend in Sector 22 when the accident took place.