A 24-year-old youth has been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment for fatally stabbing a man and trying to kill another by a Delhi court which relied on the testimony of the eye-witnesses.
Additional Sessions Judge Atul Kumar Garg, while awarding life term to Sachin Chandel, a resident of Chandni Chowk here, said, the circumstances in which the murder was committed did not make it a rarest of rare case.
"Considering the entirety of the circumstances in which the offence has been committed, I am of the opinion that the present case has not been covered in the rarest of rare case where death sentence is only sentence that can be awarded to the convict," the judge said.
The court also relied on the version of the eye witnesses and said, "testimony of the witnesses regarding the recovery of knife as well as of witnessing the incident is quite firm and coherent."
The court, which held Chandel guilty of the offences under sections 302 (murder), 307(attempt to murder) of IPC along with various provisions of Arms Act, also slapped a fine of Rs 18,000 on him.
While relying on the post mortem report of the man who was killed, the court noted that the cause of death was "shock consequent upon stab injury to the abdomen...Sufficient to cause death in ordinary course of nature."
It observed that the circumstances in which the murder was committed did not make it a rarest of rare case.According to the prosecution, on July 14, 2013 at 9 PM Chandel had asked for Rs 100 from the victim, who slapped him in response.
Enraged, he went back and came with a knife and started following the victim after which he fatally stabbed him n front of Gauri Shanker Mandir in Chandni Chowk here.
When another person, Raju, 32, tried to save the victim, he too was stabbed by Chandel and suffered injuries, it said adding the accused was arrested the next day with the help of Raju.
The court, while convicting Chandel, relied on testimonies of three eye witnesses, including Raju and two florists.
It also relied on the weapon (knife) which was recovered from Chandel and had blood marks when examined in the forensic lab.
