Court convicts man for murder, destruction of evidence

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Sept 30: An Additional Sessions Court here today convicted Mohammad Shafi Magray of murdering Mohammad Yousuf Khanday in 2018, besides holding him guilty of theft and destruction of evidence.

Additional Sessions Judge Fozia Paul convicted Magray under Sections 302, 379 and 201 of the Ranbir Penal Code, while acquitting him under Section 364 after finding that the prosecution failed to prove that Khanday was abducted by force or deceitful inducement.

The court fixed October 15 for hearing on the quantum of sentence.

Magray, who is lodged in Central Jail Kot Bhalwal, Jammu, will remain in judicial custody.

The case relates to the killing of 43-year-old Khanday of Shallabugh on May 31, 2018.

Khanday had left home for the J&K Bank branch at Chundina to withdraw money but did not return. His body was recovered from a marshy field at Batagund on June 2.

The post-mortem established a fatal blunt-force injury to the back of his head, including a fracture of the right posterior occipital region and a large extradural haematoma.

The court held that the death was homicidal.

The prosecution case rested on circumstantial evidence.

The court found that a documented Rs 50,000 liability owed by Magray to Khanday provided a supporting motive.

An affidavit acknowledging the debt was proved through the evidence of the petition writer and forensic examination of the signatures.

A key circumstance was the use and subsequent recovery of Khanday's ATM card.

The prosecution produced evidence of cash transactions using the card shortly after his disappearance.

The card and Rs 11,700 in cash were later recovered from beneath floor matting in Magray's room.

The court also relied on the destruction of the debt document and concealment of the deceased's property as evidence that the accused sought to screen himself from legal punishment.

The court, however, rejected the prosecution's "last-seen" theory, noting that no witness had seen Khanday and Magray together immediately before the assault.

It held that call records and tower data established contact and broad proximity but could not place the two together at the precise crime scene.

The court nevertheless concluded that the combined circumstances-including the financial liability, medical evidence, ATM transactions, recovery of the card and the torn debt document-established Magray's role in the killing beyond reasonable doubt.

The sentence will be decided after the October 15 hearing on aggravating and mitigating circumstances.