Mangaluru court gives life imprisonment for six people for murder

The First Additional District and Sessions Court in Mangaluru in Karnataka awarded life sentences to six people who were found guilty of murdering a 30-year-old man and setting him on fire. The convicted people are Anand Naika (39), Praveen Naika (39), Vinay Kumar (34), Prakash (35), Lokesh (38) and Nagaraj (43). In his order, judge TP Ramalinge Gowda also directed all six convicts to pay a fine of Rs 23,000. According to a chargesheet filed by the Belthangady police, 30-year-old Suresh Naika, a resident of Malavantige village of Belthangady, was set to get engaged with a woman on April 30, 2017.

On April 29, 2017, Suresh Naika left for Ujire to buy a sari for the woman. Suresh Naika received a call from Vinay Kumar stating that he can help him in getting relief under a government scheme. Suresh Naika then went missing and the body was found burnt a week later at a secluded place in Alekki village.

Vinay Kumar and the other accused were arrested by the then circle Inspector K Nagesh. The chargesheet said that Anand Naika hatched a conspiracy to murder Suresh Naika over personal enemity as he did not want the latter to marry the woman.

The judge sentenced all six persons to life imprisonment and asked them to pay a fine of Rs 23,000. The accused were charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) including 120(b) (criminal conspiracy),  143 (unlawful assembly), 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) and 302 (murder), according to a report by The Hindu.

The judge said Rs 1 lakh should be given to Suresh Naika's mother Girija from the fine amount.

He also directed the district legal services authority to pay adequate compensation to Girija under the Karnataka victim compensation scheme.