Three persons have been awarded life imprisonment by a Delhi court for killing their gang member, who had allegedly kept the booty of over Rs four lakh and refused to distribute it among themselves.
Additional Sessions Judge Rajender Kumar Shastri, who held accused Akbar, Anwar and Shokat Pasha guilty of killing Abdul Hafeez Khan, however, spared them of the gallows, saying, "The apex court time and again reminded that for the offence of murder, life imprisonment is normal rule and death sentence is an exception".
"Accused Akbar and Anwar are not previous convicts and only bread earners of their families. Akbar's wife was present in court. During deliberations on sentence, she disclosed that she has been deserted by her husband's family. She is residing with her parents now alongwith her kids," the court noted, while imposing a fine of Rs 20,000 each on the three convicts.
The court also declined the police's plea that Pasha be awarded death penalty as he was also involved in other heinous crimes, saying the cops failed to establish that the accused was involved in other serious crimes or was convicted in any.
"Though offences in which convict Pasha was involved are very heinous, it is not established as in how many cases he has been convicted. It is not the plea of the prosecution even that murder in this case was committed by any of the convicts while undergoing life imprisonment in any case.
"Considering all this, I do not find the case in hand a rarest of rare case, which entails death penalty," the judge said.
The court, however, directed the authority concerned that out of the fine amount of Rs 60,000, Rs 45,000 be given to the dependents of the deceased as compensation.
The police had apprehended the three in March 2009 after victim Abdul was shot by them over a quarrel on distribution of the looted money among themselves. Abdul succumbed to injuries in a hospital here.
