Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 26: Principal Sessions Judge Udhampur A K Koul today awarded life-imprisonment and fine of Rs 10,000 to a man and his two sons, who were facing trial in murder case.
According to police case, on November 4, 2007, Som Raj, son of Kirpa Ram and his two sons namely Radhey Sham and Kishori Lal killed Vijay Kumar by inflicting grievous injuries with a sharp-edged weapon. During the course of investigation, it came to fore that land dispute between the deceased and accused persons was the reason behind the murder.
After hearing Public Prosecutor Navneet Gupta for the State whereas Advocate PK Jandial for the accused persons, Principal Sessions Judge observed, “the crime was committed out of frustration and loss of mental balance. So the accused deserve the minimum punishment prescribed for the offences for which they have been held guilty”, adding “fairly enough this factual position was not controverted by the Public Prosecutor Navneet Gupta”.
“The process of sentencing a convict is undoubtedly a very difficult exercise and deserves a serious consideration. There is no straight jacket formula to categorize the cases which can be termed as rarest of rare. Where the murder is committed in an extremely brutal manner or where the crime is enormous in proportion or where an innocent child or a helpless women, old or infirm person is murdered and the killer is in a dominating position, the court may be justified in awarding maximum punishment”, Principal Sessions Judge said.
“Keeping in view all the facts and circumstances it is not the crime which would fall under the category of rarest of rare. The accused are from the same family and sending them to gallows would mean punishing the remaining family members of the accused also”, the Court said.
With these observations, Court awarded imprisonment for life to all the accused and fine of Rs 10,000 each.
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