2nd Additional Sessions Judge Jammu Rajinder Sapru has awarded life imprisonment to five persons in a murder case.
As per the police case, accused persons namely Bashir Ahmed, son of Qutab Din of Chowadhi, his sons Abdul Majeed and Javed Ahmed along with Mohd Shafi, son of Mohd Hussain of Chowadhi and Rashid Mohd, son of Chirag Din of Sandhi village of Vijaypur had murdered one Shams-ud-Din and caused critical injuries to two other persons by resorting to firing after trespassing into their house to kill the deceased and his family members on account of an old enmity in connection with a land dispute.
Accordingly, a case was registered at Police Station Channi Himmat vide FIR No.79 of 2009 to commission offences punishable under Sections 302, 452, 147, 323 of the RPC and Section 3/25 Arms Act and investigation started. Subsequently, on the directions of SSP Jammu, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by the then DySP Sandeep Kumar Mehta was constituted.
During the investigation, SIT had got the seized items resealed by Executive Magistrate, Jammu and had sent same to FSL, Jammu, obtained the post-mortem report of the deceased and the injury reports of the injured, got the site plan prepared from Patwari halqa and also had got recorded the statements of the eyewitnesses under Section 164-A CrPC.
From the investigation, it comes to fore that deceased Shamas Din was the real brother of accused Bashir Ahmed, and they both were residing in the houses constructed adjacent to each other. The brothers were having a dispute concerning the partition of land for which several Panchayats had been convened, but the accused Bashir Ahmed was not ready to accept any decision, and therefore, there was enmity between them.
After hearing the case in length and referring various judgments of the Supreme Court and different High Courts, the 2nd Additional Sessions Judge observed, “based on evidence adduced by the prosecution, consideration of the arguments put forth from both the sides and the case law considered, this court is of the considered view that prosecution has succeeded in proving its case against Bashir Ahmad, Abdul Majeed, Javed Ahmad, Mohammad Shafi and Rashid Mohammad”.
Accordingly, the court awarded imprisonment for life and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on Bashir Ahmed. In default of payment of fine, he shall undergo imprisonment for a further period of six months. He has also been awarded rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Sections 307/149 RPC, rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Sections 326/149, and simple imprisonment for three months under Sections 323/149 RPC.
The convict Abdul Majid, Javid Ahmed and Mohammad Shafi have been awarded imprisonment for life under Sections 302/149 RPC, rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Section 307/149, rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Sections 326/149, simple imprisonment for three years under Sections 452/149 etc.
Likewise, convict Mohammad Rashid has been awarded life imprisonment under Sections 302/149 RPC, rigorous imprisonment for seven years under Section 307/149 RPC etc. “All the sentences shall run concurrently”, the court said and directed the office to submit the entire record of the proceedings to the High Court for confirmation of the sentence of imprisonment for life.
