It stated that there was no premeditation on the part of the convict while assaulting the victim and awarded 10-year imprisonment to him.
The accused and the victim both worked on a construction site as mason and labourer respectively and stayed in a makeshift settlement built for them in Wazirpur in North-West Delhi in 2014.
According to the prosecution, the accused attacked the victim with a shovel when the latter objected to the convict abusing his wife.
The convict had abused the victim’s wife over her refusal to part with some pieces of radish she had bought from a weekly market on the incident day. When the victim heard the accused abusing his wife, he came out of his jhuggi and challenged him.
Instead of calming down, the accused picked up the shovel lying nearby and hit the victim with it. The victim later died at the hospital.
The police lodged the case based on a complaint by the victim’s wife, also the main witness. She stood her ground during the trial and identified in court the accused and the weapon with which her husband was attacked.
The police had charge-sheeted the accused for murder, but the court converted it into a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder saying there was no previous enmity between the accused and the victim, and also the ingredient of premeditation was missing.
“Hence, I am of the opinion that the accused cannot be held guilty for the offence of murder under Section 302 IPC. But the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the accused committed offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” Additional Sessions Judge Pankaj Gupta said in his judgment.
“Keeping in view all the facts and circumstances, the convict is sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of 10 years,” the Judge added, awarding the maximum sentence while rejecting the plea for a lenient punishment by the accused.
According to the court, there was no premeditation on the part of the convict while assaulting the victim