Three persons, who had murdered a man while robbing him, have been sentenced to life term by a Delhi court which refused to show them any leniency.
The court observed that the convicts killed the victim "unnecessarily" as they could have easily taken his money and belongings and spared his life.
"The aggravating circumstances may be noted thus that they killed one person just to loot his money and belongings, that they injured another with the same objective, that their acts have ruined family of the deceased and left them at the mercy of fate.
"That the death of only earning family member has put the entire family on the verge of starvation, that they killed the deceased unnecessarily as they could easily have taken his money and belongings and spared his life, and they ran away from the spot," Additional Sessions Judge Sanjay Bansal said.
The court, which said the case cannot be termed as rarest of the rare and does not warrant imposition of death penalty, said except this concession, the convicts deserve no other leniency.
The court awarded jail term to Neeraj, Sonu and Vikas, all residents of Delhi, after holding them guilty of the offences of murder, attempt to murder, dacoity with murder and common intention under the IPC. Neeraj was also convicted for offence of dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt.
It also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on the three convicts and asked the Delhi Legal Service Authority to dertermine and award compensation to injured Mool Chand and family of deceased Jitender.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place in March 2009, when Mool Chand and his nephew Jitender were going to Gazipur Dairy Farm to purchase a cow. They were having Rs 10,000 with them.
Five men surrounded them and while two of them were having knives, the others caught hold of the victims and asked them to hand over their belongings, it said.
Police said when Jitender resisted, the accused stabbed him with the knife and injured Chand. They took away money and mobile phones of the victims and fled the spot.
Chand then called police who took Jitender to a hospital where he was declared brought dead. Five accused were arrested out of which two were juveniles.
During the trial, the accused claimed innocence and said they were falsely implicated in the case.
