Court awards life imprisonment to five in murder case over property dispute

04/02/2020

JAMMU, feb 3: Additional Sessions Judge Udhampur SR Gandhi today awarded rigorous life imprisonment to five members of a family who murder one old lady and 10 years child on the issue of property.Additional Sessions Judge Udhampur SR Gandhi awarded rigorous life imprisonment to PremNath, Sita Ram, Krishan Chand sons of Massu, Babu Ram S/o Sita Ram and Guddi S/o Massu all residents of SadhotaMohraSanal Tehsil Udhampur who murdered Krishni fifty five years old lady and Parkash Singh 10 years old child.The briefly stated the facts of prosecution case are that on 07.09.2011 at 6.45 a.m one Jaipal Singh S/o VishwaNath R/o village Sadhota Tehsil & District Udhampur telephonically informed the police that unknown person(s) has committed the murder of Mst. Krishni Devi W/o Situ and Parkash Singh S/o ChuniLal both residents of village Sadhota Tehsil Udhampur with sharp edged weapons in the intervening night of 6th/7th of September 2011 at village Sadhota Tehsil and District Udhampur.
On the basis of this information FIR No.38/2011 under Section 302 RPC was registered and investigation commenced. 6. It was found during investigation that Krishni Devi had only daughter Fanjro Devi who was married with PW-1 ChuniLal who was the KhanaDamad in her house. After the death of Fanjro Devi, ChuniLal left the house. After 5/6 years husband of Krishni Devi namely Situ also died. Since Krishni Devi had no surviving issue, therefore, A-1 expecting himself as the sole heir to succeed the whole property performed the obsequies of deceased Situ.
However, Krishni Devi brought up her grandson (predeceased daughter's son) and intended to give all of her property to him. A-1 repeatedly demanded the property from deceased Krishni Devi which she denied as A-1 had not satisfactorily performed the obsequies. This led to conflict between them.
In the community meet it was decided that deceased Krishni shall give a part of the property to A-1 but it was not acceptable to A-1 and maintained that he will take the whole of the property. As Krishni Devi brought up her maternal grandson in her house, it was not acceptable to the accused persons and they thought that deceased would give whole of her property to him. Having this motive in mind A-1 along with his real brother A-1, A-2, A-5 and his nephew A-4 hatched the criminal conspiracy.
In furtherance of the criminal conspiracy, in the intervening night of 6th/7th of September 2011 they took out the deceased persons from their house and committed murder. After conclusion of investigation a Challan for the commission of offences under Sections 302/449/1 47/148/149/120-B RPC& 4/27 Arms Act was presented in the competent court of law and committed to the court of sessions.
Additional Sessions Judge Udhampur SR Gandhi after hearing AdvGulshan Singh for the accused persons whereas Additional Public Prosecutor Anil Magotra for the UT observed that case in hand is almost on the border of the rarest of rare case. It is trite that life imprisonment is the rule and death sentence is an exception. In other words death sentence must he imposed only when life imprisonment appears to be an altogether inadequate punishment. Having regard to the totality of the circumstances, in the considered opinion of the court, imprisonment for life is an adequate punishment for all the convicts.
It is ordered that for the commission of offence under Section 302 of the RPC all the convicts namely PremNath, SitaRam ,Krishan Chand, Babu Ram and Guddi shall suffer imprisonment for life and a fine of Rs.10,000/- each. For the commission of offence under Section 449 RPC each of the convicts shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years ( ten years) and a fine of Rs. 5,000/- For the commission of offence under Section 147 RPC each of the convicts shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 years ( three years ).
For the commission of offence under Section 148 RPC each of the convicts shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for 3 (three) years and fine of Rs.5,000/-. For the commission of offence under Section 120-B RPC each of the convicts shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for 5 (five) years and a fine of Rs.5,000/-.
For the commission of offence under Section 4/25 of the Arms Act A-5 Guddi shall suffer rigorous imprisonment for 3 (three years) and a fine of Rs. 5000/-. All the sentences shall run concurrently. In default of payment of fine, each of the convicts shall further undergo imprisonment for one year. 1

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