Delhi: Man gets life term for murdering senior citizen
After conviction for murder, he also sought leniency saying he belonged to a poor family and has to support his wife and son.
New Delhi: A man has been awarded life term for murdering his former employer's father by a Delhi court, which said the offence was not a "crime of passion" and deserved severe punishment.
The court held guilty 34-year-old Mukesh Kumar, a driver on daily wages, of killing 68-year-old Devender Marwah and also misappropriating the victim's jewellery which was later recovered from his room.
"The offence committed by the convict (Kumar) was not a crime of passion and certainly deserve severe punishment. However, as per the established propositions of law, the present case is not falling within the purview of rarest of rare case.
"However, in view of the poor financial background of the convict, a somewhat lenient view may be taken while imposing fine," Additional Sessions Judge Kuldeep Narayan said and imposed a fine of Rs 7,000 on Kumar.
The court, which held the motive attributed to Kumar by the prosecution could not be proved, said it was not fatal to the case as there was other clinching evidence against him.
As per prosecution, Kumar had claimed in his disclosure statement that Marwah used to often ask the accused to bring his wife to him or to repay loan advanced to him.
"I am of the considered opinion that the prosecution succeeded in establishing that it was Kumar who caused fatal injuries on Marwah on December 4, 2009 while he was present in his Rajouri Garden house here by the use of an iron rod," the judge said.
According to the prosecution, Marwah was found dead on the first floor of his house here. While his hearing aid was around his neck, the victim's gold chain and five of his six gold rings were also missing.
The incident came to light when Marwah's son, who was living in the ground floor of the house, had sent his maid to serve dinner to the victim.
When the elderly man did not open the door, the family members sensed something wrong and broke open the door and found him lying in a pool of blood, police had said, adding the entry of the accused was in a friendly manner.
Police nabbed Kumar whose fingerprints were also found at the spot.
During the trial, Kumar claimed he was falsely implicated in the case.
After being convicted for the offence of murder, he also sought leniency saying he belonged to a poor family and has to support his wife and minor son.
The prosecutor, however, argued that he does not deserve any sympathy from the court since he has been convicted of a grave offence of murder.