Man gets 10yrs in jail;Court says he must get chance to reform

A 31-year-old man convicted of beating a man to death has been sent to 10 years in jail by a Delhi court which awarded him the minimum punishment saying he must be given a chance to rehabilitate.
Additional Sessions Judge Satinder Kumar Gautam handed down the jail term to convict Pawan Kumar for hitting a 22- year-old man with a stick on his head which led to his death.
The court, however, diluted the murder charge to culpable homicide not amounting to murder saying there no premeditation to kill the victim.
The maximum sentence for the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 304 (Part I) of the IPC is life imprisonment.

"Convict is first offender and he wants to reform. He has been held guilty for the offence punishable under Section 304 (I) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and feeling remorse towards acts committed by him.
"A chance must be given for the convict to rehabilitate and assimilate in main stream of society," the judge said.

According to the prosecution, Kumar was arrested after he was found beating the rickshaw puller on the night of September 22, 2014 near Mandwali in east Delhi.
The accused, however, denied the allegations during the trial contending that he was falsely implicated by the police.

The court, while holding him guilty of the offence, relied on the post mortem report of the victim and the testimony of prosecution witnesses, including police officials on patrolling duty at that time.
It rejected the contention of the counsel for the accused that there was no independent witness in the case, saying it was late at night and no one could be expected to have witnessed the incident.