A Delhi court has sentenced six persons to life imprisonment for murdering a youth after he resisted their dacoity bid, stating it was a "rare case" and undue sympathy cannot be shown to such professional criminals.
Additional sessions judge Kamini Lau made it clear that the convicts -Krishnamurthy, Neeraj, Srikant, Rajender Prasad, Surender and Subramanyam Raja - would not be entitled for any remission till they undergo an actual sentence of 20 years in behind bars.
Apart from these six, the court awarded 10 years' jail to three other convicts -- Sombir, Sunil Kumar and Jaideep -- and five years' imprisonment to another co-accused, Amit.
The 10 accused were held guilty under various provisions of the IPC, including dacoity, murder in dacoity, destruction of evidence, criminal conspiracy, forgery and dishonestly receiving stolen property, and under the Arms Act.
The court classified it as a 'rare case' which called for exercising of alternative options of sentence. It expressed concern over deteriorating law and order problem and rise in cases of robbery, dacoity and murder here.
"I may observe that in the recent past Delhi has experienced a spurt in the incidents of snatching, robbery, dacoity, murder and other kinds of crime...
"The deteriorating law and order problem of the city is a matter of serious concern and immediate steps are required to be taken at all levels for ensuring security and safety of the citizens. Instances of young persons getting involved in criminal activities of robbing innocent persons by putting them under threat of death, are also on rise," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of November 21-22, 2010, the accused conspired to commit an armed dacoity and hired firearms from the other co-accused.
Krishnamurthy, Neeraj, Rajender and Raja got together for executing their plan for dacoity and went around the area in North West Delhi hunting for a potential victim.
The accused were on different motorcycles and when they reached near the gate of Raj Nagar Society, they found 25-year-old Prateek Trikha smoking a cigarette standing in front his new Honda City car, it said.
Grabbing the opportunity, Krishnamurthy, Neeraj, Srikant, Raja, and Rajender surrounded him and tried to snatch keys of his car. When Prateek resisted, they inflicted injuries on him and shot him in his chest, police said.
