A Delhi court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering his friend who refused to give him cannabis in west Delhi’s Moti Nagar last year.
At the Tis Hazari courts, Additional Sessions Judge Saurabh Partap Singh Laler said: “It is evident that the murder of the victim was committed by the convict just to fulfil his desire for cannabis.”
Not agreeing with the prosecution’s argument that the convict should be awarded the death sentence — the maximum punishment for Section 302 (murder) — the judge said: “It does not fall within the category of rarest of rare cases as per the settled parameters... the convict is entitled to the least punishment provided for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the IPC, i.e., life imprisonment.”
“Legal heirs of [victim] Niyaz are referred to the District Legal Services Authority, West, for award of suitable compensation,” the judge added.
The prosecution had submitted that the convict, in the presence of an eyewitness, asked the victim for cannabis but Niyaz refused to oblige him.
The convict then threatened the victim before stabbing him multiple times. He then ran away. A friend of the convict helped him attack the victim by catching the deceased from behind, said the prosecution. The victim later succumbed to injuries at a hospital.
“The prosecution proved the case on the basis of the eyewitness account as well as circumstantial evidence... All facts and circumstances unerringly point towards the fact that it was the accused, and accused only, who can be held liable for committing murder of Niyaz [deceased],” the judge noted.