Early Times Report
JAMMU, Nov 18: Principal Sessions Judge Bhaderwah, Balbir L Jaswal, today sentenced two men to 10 years' rigorous imprisonment and a third to two years' imprisonment in the 2016 Batoli murder case, in which a woman was killed and her husband and son were seriously injured inside their house.
The court convicted Ram Kumar and Sanjay Kumar, both sons of Faquir Chand and residents of Batoli, Tehsil Bhalla, for offences punishable under Sections 304 Part I, 307 and 458 RPC, while Mukesh Kumar, son of Lekh Raj, resident of Tehsil Thathri, at present Batoli, was held guilty under Section 458 RPC for house trespass.
The case arose out of FIR No. 12/2016 registered at Police Station Bhaderwah under Sections 458, 302, 307 and 34 RPC, relating to a late-night attack on February 7, 2016, at the house of Nihal Chand at Batoli, during which his wife Shakuntala Devi was killed on the spot and he and his son Chain Singh sustained grievous injuries.
While pronouncing the order on quantum of sentence, which was taken up in the second session today, the court awarded 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each under Section 304 Part I RPC, 10 years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000 each under Section 307 RPC, and 2 years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 each under Section 458 RPC to Ram Kumar and Sanjay Kumar. In default of payment of fine, the convicts shall further undergo imprisonment, and the substantive sentences shall run concurrently. The period already undergone in custody since 2016 shall be set off against the awarded sentence.
For Mukesh Kumar, the court awarded 2 years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs 1,000 under Section 458 RPC, with 15 days' further imprisonment in default of payment of fine. The period spent in custody shall also be set off.
During the hearing on sentence, Mr K.K. Bandral, Ld Public Prosecutor for the UT of J&K, pressed for the death penalty for the main convicts, arguing that the accused had forcibly broken open the door of the house at night, trespassed with criminal intention, and launched a brutal attack on the family, resulting in the death of an "innocent and helpless woman" and serious injuries to two others. He described the act as "gruesome, inhuman and cruel", contending that it fell in the "rarest of rare" category and warranted the extreme penalty to send a strong message of deterrence.
On the other hand, Mr N.K. Gupta, counsel for Ram Kumar and Mukesh Kumar, and Mr Majid Malik, counsel for Sanjay Kumar, submitted that the case did not fall in the rarest of rare category and that the incident occurred on the spur of the moment in a fit of anger, attracting culpable homicide not amounting to murder rather than a case for capital punishment. They pointed out that the convicts are middle-aged, have ailing parents, and are the sole earning members of their families. It was further argued that they have no previous criminal record, have already undergone long incarceration since 2016, and there is no material to suggest that they cannot be reformed or rehabilitated or that they would pose a continuing threat to society.
Judge Jaswal, after examining the rival contentions and the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Bachan Singh vs State of Punjab, Machhi Singh vs State of Punjab, and other leading cases on the death penalty, observed that life imprisonment is the rule and death is an exception, to be reserved only for the rarest of rare cases where the alternative of life imprisonment is "unquestionably foreclosed".
The court noted that the crime, though heinous, inhuman and barbaric, appeared to have been committed in a fit of anger and spur of the moment, and was not pre-planned or premeditated, even as the assault on Shakuntala Devi, Nihal Chand and Chain Singh was of a very serious and shocking nature.
Referring to the "pain and agony caused to the deceased and her family members" and the psychological impact on those who witnessed the crime, the court held that the case fell in an "abnormal and heinous category", but after preparing a balance sheet of aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it concluded that the requirements for imposing the death penalty were not met, and rigorous imprisonment would meet the ends of justice.
The judgment also records that the matter saw an unusual procedural hurdle when, in the intervening night of December 31, 2020, a fire incident in the court complex at Bhaderwah destroyed the original record, necessitating reconstruction of the file on the directions of the High Court. Fresh charges were thereafter framed, and the trial continued on the basis of reconstructed proceedings and evidence.
The court informed the convicts of their right to challenge both conviction and sentence before the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh within the statutory period, and directed that copies of the judgment and order on sentence be supplied to them free of cost in open court.
—(JNF) |
