Man gets life term for killing cousin, injuring wife

A man has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for murdering his cousin brother and injuring his wife with an axe here in 2008. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 15,000 on convict Bhag Chand, a resident of Rohini here, after holding him guilty for the offences under sections 302 (murder) and 307 (attempt to murder) of the IPC. "It is not a rarest of the rare case inviting imposition of capital punishment. I, therefore, sentence convict Bhag Chand to undergo life imprisonment under section 302 of the IPC...," Additional Sessions Judge Rajnish Bhatnagar said. The court also said, "No doubt the motive assumes importance but it cannot be said that in the absence of the motive to commit a crime no conviction can be made." According to the police, the FIR was lodged on a complaint by Vikram Singh, who was working as a security guard in sector 14 Rohini here. Singh had told the police that on August 18, 2008, he had seen Bhag Chand in the night and when he had inquired from him, he told that he had murdered his wife and cousin brother. It said that Singh had called the other guards and some of the residents of the nearby 'jhuggi' had also gathered there and Chand had told them that he had committed the murder. When all of them reached the spot, they saw that a blood stained axe was lying there and Chand's cousin brother Kalicharan was dead while his wife Puniya was alive following which the police was called, it said, adding that the accused was arrested thereafter. During the trial, Chand had claimed that he was implicated in the case and had not murdered anyone. His counsel had argued that Puniya and Kalicharan were attacked by some unknown persons on the night of the incident. Puniya, during recording of her statement in the court, had deposed that some unknown persons had attacked her and Kalicharan and they had given axe blow on both of them. (More)