A Delhi court today awarded life imprisonment to a man in a sensational murder case in which his businessman brother-in-law was shot dead by armed assailants on a crowded road here in 2008 over a multi-crore property and financial dispute.
Additional Sessions Judge Reetesh Singh also imposed a fine of Rs five lakh on Dinesh Kumar Mittal for the murder of Arun Gupta.
Besides him, the court also sentenced to life four other convicts -- Junaid Khan, Mohd Haroon, Mohd Parvez and Shakeel Ahmed, and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on each one of them.
"Mittal, Junaid, Haroon, Parvez and Ahmed sentenced to imprisonment for life," the court said.
The court also directed that out of the fine of Rs 5 lakh imposed on Mittal, Rs two lakh be related to the victim's wife Sadhna Gupta and Rs one lakh each to his two chilren as "compensation for emotional loss."
While convicting the accused, the court held that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubts.
The court convicted them for the offence punishable under sections including 302 (murder) and 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
It, however, had acquitted a man named Afroz saying police has failed to prove its case against him.
Appearing for complainant Sadhna, advocate Vibhor Garg had sought death penalty for the convicts.
According to the police, Gupta was shot dead by three motorcycle-borne men in Kalkaji are of south Delhi in April 2008.
It had said that Gupta's murder was planned by his brother-in-law Dinesh as he suspected that the victim was trying to dispose of about Rs 100 crore worth Mittal Garden farm house, one of the prized properties left behind by Dinesh's late father M L Mittal.
Police had also claimed that Dinesh also suspected that Gupta and his wife Sadhna -- Dinesh's sister -- were trying to grab fixed deposits worth Rs 10.5 crore.
It had claimed that the murder had been committed by some contract killers from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh.
During trial, Mittal had denied the allegations levelled against him.
