NRI teenager drive van into a NRI group of partiers following
a New Year's Eve in Calgary-
one died and serious injury to two others

• A teenager NRI, Samrat Dhuna, 18, accused of driving through a crowd of New Year's revellers

Updated by Jay Gill

February 24, 2006

• Hit-and-run charges upgraded
  
  
• NRI, teenager Samrat Dhuna, 18 is alleged to have been involved in a confrontation earlier in the evening on Dec. 31 when he and some friends were turned away from a private party at a restaurant, according to CanWest News Service
  
  
• Crown prosecutors expanded the charges against 18-year-old Samrat Dhuna Thursday to include second-degree murder and attempted murder. He now faces a total of 12 charges.
  
  
• The driver is accused of deliberately speeding the wrong way down the one-way street.

  On Thursday, Crown prosecutor Jonathan Hak informed the provincial court that charges against Dhuna had been changed. "A review of the police investigation, reviewing the evidence they had gathered to date, caused us to treat the charge as one of homicide rather than a motor vehicle offence."

Dhadda died but her friends still in the Bed

CALGARY, January 28, 2006
Ramesh Malhotra

NRI Dhadda's friends Karen Gill and Parminder Marahar were also knocked off their feet and have been immobilized in the hospital beds. Their injuries are serious and their futures remain uncertain, friends say.

According to CanWest News Service, Gill has undergone eight surgeries since being hit and she remains on a respirator. The bones in the 23-year-old's face are fractured and both of her legs are broken. She has multiple broken bones. Nurses have propped her shattered left arm up on pillows. She has spinal and rib fractures and a broken shoulder and her pelvis is broken in three places.

Doctors have inserted metal rods inside Marahar's shattered legs.

"I hear his screams and his moans. You really hear the agony he's in," said Dhadda. Marahar, 29, was knocked out of his shoes the night he was struck down in the street. His body slammed upside down into a parked SUV.

"He's completely helpless. He can't help himself."

It will take Marahar six months to learn how to walk again. Doctors are watching over his internal injuries, including a lacerated liver, collapsed lungs and damaged arteries. His lower jaw was fractured and his teeth were broken.

Friends have chosen Sunday -- Dhadda's birthday -- to launch a fundraiser for Mothers Against Drunk Driving in her honour.

Samrat Dhuna released on $5,000 bail

CALGARY, Jan. 11 2006
CP

Friends and family of a young woman killed when a van slammed into a group of partiers following a New Year's Eve brawl were upset Wednesday when the accused was granted bail.

"I don't know what kind of message that's sending out to people out there," Raj Dhadda, whose sister Raminder, 24, died in the crash, said outside court.

"We're disappointed he's being released with those conditions. I thought they were going to be a lot more severe."

Samrat Dhuna, 18, faces 11 charges, including criminal negligence causing death, impaired driving causing death, two counts of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, dangerous driving and hit-run causing death. The allegations have yet to be tried in court and Dhuna has yet to enter a plea.

Judge Sandra Hamilton allowed his release on $5,000 bail along with a strict curfew. Dhuna was also required to surrender his Indian passport, permanent residency card and driver's licence, is prohibited from driving and must remain living in his parent's house in Calgary.

Dhuna stood with his arms folded and looked steadily at the ground while the judge outlined her decision. He broke into a small smile when told he would be released.

The accused's mother and father were in court supporting their son. Last week, Amrik Dhuna described his son as obedient and as someone who got good grades in school since moving to Canada from India nine years ago.

His next court date is scheduled for Feb. 16 when he will give his election and plea.

NRI girl 24, was killed, when a van driving through a crowd of New Year's revellers

CALGARY, Jan 02, 2006
Ramesh Malhotra

NRI, Raminder Dhadda, 24, was killed and serious injury to two others when a teenager was driving through a crowd of New Year's revellers at about 2:40 a.m. on Sunday.

According to CBC report that the accident was witnessed by many of Dhadda's friends, who had gathered on the sidewalk after leaving a private party at a bar.

"I just remember, all I could see was her face," a friend, Harinder Sajjan, told CBC News on Monday.

"All I could see was her face. She was lying there in a pool of blood." Investigators said the incident involved a series of altercations between a private party and a group of uninvited guests.

Witnesses allege the van's driver was among a group of young people who were turned away from the bar earlier that night.

---

Calgary
Reported by Ram Singh

About half an hour before midnight, Harinder Sajjan attempted to turn away three or four young men who were not on the guest list for the private New Year's Eve party she was co-hosting at a Calgary bar.

Some heated words were exchanged, she said. Her brother intervened, as did her friend, Raminder Dhadda. Eventually the young men, who were unknown to the trio, left.

"They were like, 'Don't worry, we'll be back.' They said that," Ms. Sajjan recalled yesterday. "We were, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever.' We didn't think anything of it."

Slightly more than three hours later, Ms. Sajjan ran outside to find Ms. Dhadda lying dead on the bloodied asphalt. The 24-year-old personal banker had been knocked down by a van being driven at a high rate of speed the wrong way down a one-way street by a man who police say was allegedly involved in the earlier altercation.

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