Accused did not shift victims to hospital proving his guilt; life imprisonment confirmed

S Shyam Prasad | NT

Bangalore: The High Court of Karnataka confir med the life imprisonment imposed on a murder accused after it found that his guilt was proved by the fact that he did not make any effort to shift the victims to a hospital.

The accused had claimed that the victims had died in an accident.

The division bench of Justice HP Sandesh and Justice Ramachandra D Huddar in their judgment on a petition filed by one Sanju Pawar of Bagalkot said, “The accused is neighbour of the victims. The accused, knowing fully well that he had caused the accident, fled away from the spot without taking the victims, who are the immediate neighbours, to the hospital.”

Sanju had not only deliberately caused the accident but also assaulted the victims over a property dispute. Accused did not shift victims to hospital proving his guilt; life imprisonment confirmed Rather than an accident, the cause of the death of the two victims was murder.

The Jamkhandi police had registered a case after a complaint of an accident between a motorcycle and a Cruiser Trax on March 28, 2018, which had led to the death of two persons.

Subsequently, investigation revealed that it was a murder. Sanju had rammed his Trax against the two-wheeler of Jyothiba and another person.

After the victims fell, he assaulted them with a club. The police alleged that Sanju had caught Jyothiba and his wife “redhanded in the bathroom previously,” and was upset with their illicit relationship.

The trial court concluded that Sanju was guilty and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment for murder and also imposed a fine of Rs.50,000. Sanju challenged this before the HC.

The HC concluded that the Trial Court had given a valid judgement. It said that the chain of events in the evidence-based on circumstances was proved.

Sanju had purchased the Trax only a month before the murder. Though the victim was his neighbor he did not shift them to a hospital which showed his guilt. The assault on the victims with a club on their foreheads was also proved.

The motive for the murder was also proved by the enmity between Sanju and Jyothiba over an illicit relationship.

“The other circumstances also disclose that on account of this incident, the wife of this appellant was also not residing along with him and left his company and the same made him take the extreme step to murder by causing an accident,” the HC concluded.