3 given life term for beating man to death in Sohna in 2015

A city court on Saturday sentenced three men to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of rupees 13,100 each for murdering a man by beating him with wires and rods in Sohna and dumping his body in a drain in Jhajjar in August 2015.

The accused — Jitender, Sandeep Yadav and Ramesh Chand — were held guilty of the offence under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 342 (wrongful confinement), 364 (kidnapping or abduction in order to murder), 365 (kidnapping or abduction to confine person), 506 (criminal intimidation) read with section 34 (common intention), and acquitted of the charge under section 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code.

The court said that in default of fine payment, the convicts shall further undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. All the sentences shall run concurrently.

The three convicts pleaded the court to take a lenient view on the quantum of the sentence, stating that they were the sole bread earners from poor families and had to look after ailing family members.

On August 22, 2015 at 6 pm, Salim, a native of Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh, who repaired gas stoves and sewing machines, received a phone call from Jitender whose machine Salim had repaired. Jitender complained that his machine was out of order and called him to a hotel near Chandu village at Rajendra Park. When Salim and his brother Naved went to the hotel, their clothes were removed and both were tied up and beaten up by the accused men with iron wires and rods, police said. Salim was let go at 5am the following morning and the accused men had told him that Naved had escaped.

Salim and his uncle, Farman, had reported the incident to the police on August 24, 2015, and an FIR was registered at Rajendra Park police station. On August 27, the body of Naved was recovered from a drain in Jhajjar. The sections of murder and abduction were added to the FIR later. The police had arrested Jitender, Sandeep Yadav, Ramesh Chand and Kuldeep and recovered rope, plastic pieces, a motorcycle and mobile phones.

In the court order, the additional sessions judge stated that the prosecution had been able to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, relying on the testimony of the ‘star witness’, Salim, who was accompanying Naved and was also beaten by the accused facing trial.

The oral testimony backed by medical evidence (post mortem report of deceased said that he died due to the external injuries and internal consequences, sufficient to cause death due to haemorrhage) and recovery of dead body and other evidence by the police was sufficient, the order said.

The order stated, “The faces of the accused must have been imprinted in the heart of prosecution witness, Salim.”

The court further observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the involvement of Kuldeep in the offence by not proving his presence at the spot.

First Published: Apr 02, 2019 04:14 IST