Srinagar: Additional Sessions Judge, Kulgam Parvaiz Iqbal, on Monday in an elaborate judgment convicted Mohd Amin Bhat and his two sons Rauf Ahmed Bhat and Younis Ahmed Bhat in a case arising from FIR 72 OF 2016 Police Station Devsar of registered for offence of ‘Murder’.
The court held that “The prosecution in my humble appreciations has been successful in establishing the culpable homicide against the accused persons beyond all the reasonable doubt but has fallen short of the mark i.e. in bring the act of accused persons within ambit of clauses ‘firstly’ to ‘fourthly’ of S. 300 RPC.”
The judgment says “Considering the evidence, it is thus convincingly made out that there was no intention on the part of accused persons to kill the deceased. It is manifest that murder was not a premeditated one. There was no previous enmity in between the accused persons and the deceased nor does it appear from evidence that they came to the place of occurrence looking for him. There was no motive on the part of the accused persons to kill the deceased and the incident appears to have happened all of a sudden while the accused and the complainant were having altercation and scuffle. It is a case of sudden fight and there is no pre-meditation.”
The court said “It was the duty of the prosecution to make out that the act done by the accused as a result of which the deceased got killed falls within the four clauses of section 300 RPC. Even though none of the five exceptions are pleaded or prima facie established on the evidence on record, the prosecution was still required under the law to bring the case under any of the four clauses of Section 300 of the RPC to sustain the charge of murder.”
Further the court said “It is evident from these decisions that a duty is cast on the Judge to see that the sentence shall consist of an element of reformation of the criminal and also the reparation of the victim, along with the elements of deterrence, prevention and retribution. Thus, the Judge has to balance all these conflicting interests and choose the right and appropriate sentence, for the sentence to be meaningful.”
Concluding the case passing Sentence Order, the court awarded all the three convicts sentence to undergo rigorous imprisonment for seven years and fine of Rs. One lakh each. In the event of their default to deposit a fine amount, they shall undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of six months.
“The judgment is pronounced in the Open Court in virtual presence of the accused persons from District Jail, Anantnag and physical presence of Ld. APP and Ld. Counsel for the accused persons. The seized staff ‘Danda’ shall be destroyed in due course. A free copy of judgment be given to the accused,” reads the judgement, a copy of which is in the possession of Kashmir Dot Com.
Pertinently, Bashir Ahmed Parray was injured, later (succumbed at SKIMS Soura) after being attacked by Mohd Amin Bhat and his two sons with “danda” at village Kelam under Devsar Police Station on 09.09.2016 after Friday prayers. The challan of this was presented by the Investigating officer before the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kulgam on 22.11.2016. (KDC)
