A court in Saharanpur sentenced six members of a family, including a father-son pair, who used to sentence life imprisonment in a 12-year murder case. Court also imposed a collective fine 1.62 lakh on the culprits.
The verdict was given on Friday by Judge Vikas Gupta of Additional Sessions, who rejected the defense arguments and trusted the documentary evidence and eyewitness testimony. The court said that although the case did not come under the “rare rare” category for death sentence, it started life imprisonment.
According to Additional District Government Counsel (ADGC) Deepak Saini, the incident took place on May 4, 2013 in Amoli village under Rampur Maniharan Police Station, when a local resident Dhir Singh was killed during a violent clash.
The FIR was filed by the victim’s brother Shivlal, alleging that a quarrel broke between the children of two families, which led to an argument between women.
What started as a minor domestic dispute soon increased into a violent clash. Manga alias Mangram, along with other family members, equipped with sticks and baton, allegedly entered Shivlal’s house and started an attack, according to the FIR.
In the attack, Dhir Singh suffered serious injuries. He was rushed to the district hospital, where he succumbed during treatment. The police arrested all the accused and started a legal process, which ended in the decision after more than a decade.
The culprits include Manga alias Manem, his brothers Rajesh and Rajendra, his sons Pradeep and Praveen and Rajesh’s wife Savita. His arrest was followed by a long legal trial, during which the testimony of seven major eyewitnesses played an important role.
The court accepted the witness’s statements as important and dismissed the claims of defense that the incident was a spontaneous domestic dispute without the intention of the housewife. Raksha also argued that the accused had no purpose and he was standing to achieve nothing from Dhir Singh’s death. However, citing strong evidence and witness accounts, the court rejected all such arguments.
The court said, “Six accused formed an illegal group and, due to a general purpose, influenced deadly injuries on Dhair Singh. However, the circumstances do not qualify under the Supreme Court guidelines for rare cases of the Supreme Court,” the court sentenced all the six accused to life imprisonment.
