Six years on, 4 get life term for Sec-42 CA's murder
A local court on Monday awarded life term to four men convicted of murdering Sector 42-based chartered accountant (CA) Rajesh Goyal on May 22, 2007. District and sessions judge SK Aggarwal also awarded compensation of Rs 60,000 to the victim's wife.
A local court on Monday awarded life term to four men convicted of murdering Sector 42-based chartered accountant (CA) Rajesh Goyal on May 22, 2007. District and sessions judge SK Aggarwal also awarded compensation of Rs 60,000 to the victim's wife.
Those convicted are share broker Kanav Arora, a resident of Sector 21; Arora's staff Shiv Kumar, a resident of Nayagaon; hired killer Mandeep Singh, a student and call centre employee who belongs to Phase 10, SAS Nagar; and Ishwinder Singh, a student from Sector 21, Chandigarh. All the convicts are in their 20s.
Police had told the court that the motive of the murder was that the accused owed crores of rupees to 37-year-old Goyal, who had invested a lot of money through stock broker Arora. Arora and Shiv, who had embezzled Goyal's money, hatched the conspiracy to kill Goyal and had hired Mandeep for the murder, it was alleged. The court also awarded 10-year jail for house trespass along with fine of Rs 30,000 fine each, but said, "Taking into account the facts and circumstances of the case and also the antecedents of the convicts including their age, it is not found to be a 'rarest of the rare' case warranting the awarding of capital punishment."
Dismissing the plea of false implication, the court added, "It has not surfaced on the record as to why the accused did not approach the higher authorities of the police or any other competent authority complaining their false implication in this case. To say the least, the defence version is quite a patch of lies and figment of imagination spun out after presentation of challan. As such, it is rejected as a whole."
Also rejecting the defence plea that no motive of murder was established, the court held, "It stands established that the motive behind the murder by the accused was the dispute and embezzlement with regards to bonus/shares." Even the plea of the defence that no identification parade of the accused had been done, failed to impress the court.
Delayed, but justice has been done: victim's wife
"Der se mila, but insaaf hua (though delayed, justice has been done). I am happy and satisfied and the order reaffirms my faith in the justice delivery system," said 35-year-old Sonia Goyal, mother of two, after the court awarded life term to her husband's murderers.
"When I started the struggle to get justice for my husband six years ago, I was told that his murder did not fall in the rarest of rare category so the killers won't get death penalty. But I am relieved that they would spend their lives behind bars for murdering an innocent person like Rajesh just for money," she said, present in the court in the morning. She left to sit for her MEd examination soon after.
What nailed the killers, as per judgment
*The recovery of weapon of offence, articles, clothes, shoes, and the recovery of a (PAN card) form of Kanav Arora (from the murder spot) is also a strong piece of evidence to connect the accused with the present crime.
*The statement of Arvinder Singh, a resident of SAS Nagar, who had seen the accused coming down the stairs after the murder, also nailed the accused. He had identified all the accused in the court.
*The statement of KK Aggarwal, Sonia's father, helped the prosecution. He said that he had met Goyal in May 2007, and Goyal was under depression. He said Mandeep Singh, Shiv Kumar, Kanav Arora and Ishvinder Singh had come to him and told him to "settle" the shares, otherwise the result would be bad.