Roadside vendor gets 5-yr jail term for killing friend

A Delhi court has held a roadside vendor guilty of killing a man in a fit of rage in 2013 and sentenced him to five years imprisonment, a term which he has already served during trial.

Additional Sessions Judge O P Saini held Regan Pradhan, a momos seller, guilty under Section 304 Part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Pradhan has been in custody since December 30, 2013, for stabbing his friend Arun Thapa in a drunken state, which eventually led to his death.

The court took a lenient view towards Pradhan considering his poor financial condition and that he has been in custody for the past five years.

"The convict was in the business of selling momos and belonged to a lower strata of society. He was in custody since December 30, 2013. Considering these facts, I am inclined to take a lenient view and sentence him to the imprisonment for the period already undergone by him," the judge said.

The court also said that the convict be set at liberty at once, if not required to be detained in any other case.

According to the prosecution, the incident took place on the night of December 29, 2013, when Pradhan and Thapa, both in drunken state, got into an argument after the accused passed some remarks about the victim's ex-girlfriend.

The altercation led to Pradhan picking up a knife and stabbing Thapa in his chest after which he taken to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared him brought dead.

During the trial, Pradhan claimed that he was falsely implicated and denied the allegations levelled against him.

The court held that the case showed that the accused had no intention to kill the victim, as it took place all of a sudden and Pradhan had stabbed Thapa only once.

"However, when he attacked the injured with a knife and stabbed him in the chest, he can safely be attributed the knowledge that he was doing an act which was likely to cause death," the court said.