E-Paper
Panchkula: Farmhand who killed, buried his employer awarded life term
The Panchkula court of district and sessions judge Ved Prakash Sirohi also imposed a fine of ₹26,000 on the convict, Dalip, alias Chhotu, a native of Uttar Pradesh
Over two years after a 29-year-old farmhand murdered his employer and buried his body in Behad village, Chandimandir, in May 2021, a local court on Saturday sentenced him to life in prison.
The court of district and sessions judge Ved Prakash Sirohi also imposed a fine of ₹26,000 on the convict, Dalip, alias Chhotu, a native of Uttar Pradesh.
Earlier, public prosecutor Naresh Kumar Garg appealed before the court that looking at the gravity of offence and nature of crime, the convict did not deserve leniency and should be awarded stringent punishment to send message to other like-minded people in society.
The defence counsel, on the other hand, prayed for a lenient view, citing his bed-ridden mother and dependent wife.
Awarding life imprisonment to the convict, the court ruled, “Dalip is proved to have committed murder of employer and attempted to bury his body in a ditch. Thus he does not deserve any leniency.”
The victim, Suresh Kumar, was a farmer and had hired Dalip as a farmhand in 2018, as per his son Sushil Kumar, a Home Guards volunteer in Panchkula.
On May 21, 2021, Suresh and Dalip went to fetch fodder for cattle. When his father did not return home till 2 pm, he went looking for him and saw Dalip filling up a ditch near the tubewell, Sushil had told police.
Noticing him, Dalip ran away, leaving a blood-stained spade behind. On approaching the ditch, Sushil was shocked to find his father lying dead and half buried. Sushil had alleged that Dalip killed his father by hitting his head with a spade.
Subsequently, a case under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code was registered at the Chandimandir police station.
Dalip was arrested the next day and on his disclosure, police had recovered the T-shirt he was wearing at the time of the murder.
