Three youths have been given life term for robbing and murdering a Delhi Police constable in 2011 by a local court which rejected a plea of juvenility raised by one of them.
The court sentenced to life Rudermani, 23, Rohit Kumar, 25, and Sunil 30, observing that they were professional criminals operating in northwest Delhi and move around undeterred while looking for vulnerable victims.
"Undue sympathy, under these circumstances, to impose inadequate sentence upon the convicts who are habitual and repeat offenders would do more harm to the justice system to undermine the public confidence in the efficacy of law and society could not long endure under such serious threats," Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau said.
The court said it was its duty to award the sentence considering the nature of offence and the manner in which it was committed.
The court also imposed a fine of Rs 1.10 lakh on Rudermani and Rs 1.05 lakh each on Rohit and Sunil. It, however, made it clear that out of the fine amount, Rs three lakh would be given to constable Harkesh Meena's family.
According to the prosecution, on October 15, 2011, accused Rudermani, Rohit and Sunil robbed 27-year-old Meena of cash, his mobile phone and other documents on knife point and also assaulted him with the weapon which lead to his death.
The incident took place in front of Indira Market near Adarsh Nagar Metro Station here, it said, adding a call was made to the PCR by a passerby who had seen the three youths robbing and murdering Meena.
The police later arrested the trio and recovered the robbed articles and knife from them.
