Three youths have been sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life by a Delhi court for beating to death an 18-year-old boy with sticks and bricks.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau awarded the jail term to Delhi residents Sanjay Dhankad, 27, Bhagwan Sahai, 24, and Mohan Singh, 27 for murdering Manoj in 2010.
The court rejected the plea of the prosecution that death penalty be given to the trio, saying the case does not fall within the category of rarest of rare case.
"Now, I would like to draw a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating factors. The mitigating factors in this case are that all the convicts namely Sanjay Dhankad, Bhagwan Sahai and Mohan Singh are young boys.
"The aggravating factors are that deceased Manoj was also a young boy of 18 years and there was a previous history of disputes between the convicts and the deceased on account of which victim Manoj was mercilessly beaten in broad daylight in full public view without any fear of law and any person who tried to intervene was also threatened," the judge said.
The court imposed a fine of Rs one lakh each on the three convicts and the amount would be given to Manoj's family.
According to the prosecution, the incident took place on December 10, 2010 in a market in Hudson lane area in North West Delhi when Sanjay, Bhagwan and Mohan assaulted Manoj with bricks and sticks leading to his death.
Manoj along with his three friends had gone to the market to have tea and the three accused also came there and started arguing with Manoj.
They assaulted Manoj with bricks and sticks and also kicked him following which he fell down. However, the accused did not stop at that and picked up a flower pot made of cement and hit it on the victim's head.
Manoj's friends called PCR and along with passersby also tried to save the victim but were threatened by the accused.
Manoj was taken to police station after one of the accused falsely told the passersby that he was a chain snatcher.
A case was registered at Mukherjee Nagar Police Station and the trio were arrested later on.
During the trial, the trio claimed innocence and said that they were falsely implicated in the case.
