E-Paper
Chandigarh: Man to spend life in jail for killing co-worker in Sector 27
Convict had bludgeoned his co-worker to death with a brick and dumped his body outside a booth in the sector in April 2020 amid the Covid lockdown
Nearly four years after a dhaba worker bludgeoned his co-worker to death with a brick amid the Covid-19 lockdown, the additional sessions court awarded him life in prison.
Hailing from Attari, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, Budhi Lal, alias Golu, aged 23, was convicted under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also fined him ₹13,000.
Budhi Lal was arrested on April 20, 2020, for murdering his co-worker Arjun, 35, and dumping his body outside a booth in Sector 27 earlier in the wee hours.
After discovering the body, police through a CCTV footage had spotted a man, bringing the body on his shoulder at 4.28 am, dumping it and leaving. Later, Anurag, owner of Paul Sweets and Dhaba, Sector 27, had recognised the deceased as his worker Arjun.
Anurag told the police that his shop had been lying closed due to the Covid-19 lockdown in Chandigarh. His worker, Arjun and Budhi Lal, used to live on the first floor of the shop.
On April 20, 2020, he visited the shop to check on them, but didn’t find them.
That evening, he came across police and identified the deceased as his worker. A murder case was registered and Budhi Lal was arrested from the adjoining sector.
Probe revealed that on the intervening night of April 19-20, Arjun and Budhi had a scuffle while consuming liquor in the SCO. In a fit of rage, Budhi attacked him with a brick, leading to his death. He then wrapped the body in a blanket and bedsheet, carried it on his shoulder and dumped it in the corridor of Sector 27 market. Thereafter, he returned to the SCO and washed it thoroughly to clean the blood stains, police said.
Police had recovered a brick and blood-stained jacket following Budhi’s arrest.
Before pronouncement of sentence, while the convict pleaded for leniency, the public prosecutor, Phool Singh, sought stern punishment.
Awarding him life imprisonment, the court ordered, “The nature and gravity of offence committed by the convict do not leave any reason with the court to treat him with leniency…”
“...the accused intentionally gave multiple brickbat blows to his roommate and co-employee...committed his murder and dumped his dead body in the verandah in front of Sai Services, Booth No. 19/7, Sector 27-C, and then thoroughly cleaned the blood stains from the room with water to make this evidence disappear with intention to screen himself from legal punishment,” the court observed.
