Delhi High Court convicts 3, frees 2 in murder case

New Delhi: A murder case, which saw the division bench of Delhi High Court arrive at a split verdict earlier, has been decided by a third judge leading to conviction and awarding of life sentence to three men and acquittal of two others.

The trial court had earlier convicted all the five men. After the split verdict, the matter was placed before justice Khanna, who acquitted Arora and Pandey by giving them the benefit of doubt and convicted Garg, Vishnu and Sonveer.

While deciding the reference on appeals of the five men, justice Sanjiv Khanna noted that difference of opinion between the two judges was primarily on the question of the identification of the perpetrators by the eyewitness and on some other aspects.

While justice Gita Mittal had acquitted the five accused, Sushil Arora, Rajesh Pandey, Hemant Garg, Vishnu and Sonveer, all of them were held guilty by justice R.K. Gauba for murdering a youth in 2009 on Ridge Road near Dhaula Kuan.

“It would not be possible to ignore and brush off the statements made by the witnesses identifying Hemant Garg, Sonveer and Vishnu. Their identification carries weight and deserves affirmation as correct,” the court said.

According to the police, on February 22, 2009, some persons travelling in an Indica car had chased a black Santro car and near Simon Boliver Marg T-point and shot dead one of the occupants of the first car and injured another.

Justice Khanna concurred with the punishment awarded by justice Gauba and sentenced the three convicts to life imprisonment. The trial court had held that the five men had conspired to commit the murder after a quarrel broke out between them and acquaintances of the murdered youth, A. Minocha, over default of a loan of Rs 10 lakh.

The loan to Arora was given by one M. Singh and when he didn’t repay it, the former went to collect the amount with some of his friends, including Minocha. After a quarrel over repayment, Singh and others left in two cars, one of them a black Santro in which Minocha was travelling.

They added that when the black car reached Buddha garden, they stopped to buy soft drinks and it was then that the other car overtook them and its occupants began opening fire at them.

Accrdimng to the police, Minocha was shot in the head, while another was shot in the leg. Minocha was rushed to the hospital, where was declared brought dead on arrival by doctors.