Early Times Report
Jammu, Apr 29: A local court on Monday awarded life imprisonment to three persons from Jammu's Samba district for 'brutally' murdering a bus conductor 14 years ago. The court of Additional Sessions Judge, Kathua, Sikender Azam Chowdhary awarded life impriosnment to Onkar Nath alias Phungi, son of Om Parkash Jogi, Rakesh Kumar, son of Puran Chand (both residents of Pacci Mandi W.No. 01, Samba), and Pawan Kumar alias Billa, son of Chhilu Ram of Chak Manga Rakwal, W.No.09 Samba for murdering the bus conductor Santokh Singh alias Shoka.
Santokh Singh was in his bus bearing registration no. JK02T-6443 on his way from Jammu to Kathua on 28.4.2005. When the bus stopped for deboarding the passengers on the National Highway between Samba and Kathua, the three accused brutally murdered Santokh Singh in presence of many passersby and bus passengers. "It is very dreadful in the whole society. The accused did not pay any regard to the law and order, so they are not deserving for any leniency," the judge observed after hearing advocate Davinder Sharma for the state and advocate A Salathia for the accused.
"This court is of considered opinion that the case of the accused/convicts is not the rarest of the rare cases, where the convict should forfeit his right to life because no exceptional case for awarding capital punishment is made out and even there is no evidence on record to suggest that the accused persons will mend their ways or change their life as good citizen, and in fact apart from the incident in question, prosecution could not establish any such past criminal history against the convicts/accused, though the learned APP has submitted during the arguments that certain cases of criminal nature are pending against the accused but same is not a matter of record. Therefore, for what has been stated above, all the accused/convicts are sentenced to rigours imprisonment for life for offences under sections 302/34 RPC and a fine of Rs. 30,000 is also imposed upon each of the accused and in default of payment of fine each of the accused shall further undergo simple imprisonment for 3 months," the court ruled.
Onkar Nath and Pawan Kumar will further undergo sentence for 3 years for offence under section 4/25 Arms Act, the court added. |
