HC refuses to quash charges against Bikram over Sonika's death

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Wednesday turned down actor Bikram Chatterjee's plea to quash the charges brought against him in the case of model Sonika Chauhan's death.

Previously, Chatterjee had appealed for the same in the lower court, which was rejected. Following that he moved to Calcutta High Court, praying for dismissal of the charges brought against him.

In November last year, the Calcutta High Court had ordered the investigating agency not to take any coercive action against him. On Wednesday, after completion of the hearing, Justice Shivakant Prasad passed an order turning down the appeal by Chatterjee to quash the charge of 304 IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) brought against him.

It was also ordered that the charge framing process should be done soon at the lower court. After this order, the investigating agency now has no bar on taking any action against Chatterjee.

In April 2017, Chauhan died in a car accident where the vehicle was being driven by Chatterjee. It was alleged that he was driving the car in drunken condition. Later, Chatterjee was arrested and had to spend several days behind bars.

In July 2017, Chatterjee was granted bail by the Alipore Court against two bonds worth Rs 25,000 each. He was also ordered not to leave Kolkata without permission of the officer-in-charge (OC) of Tollygunj police station.

Later in 2018, he appealed before the Alipore Court to relieve him from the case, which was eventually turned down by the court.