E-Paper
HC converts acquittal into life term
THE ALLAHABAD High Court awarded life term to two persons, accused of triple murder. The accused had killed a woman and her two minor children by pouring acid on them.
THE ALLAHABAD High Court awarded life term to two persons, accused of triple murder. The accused had killed a woman and her two minor children by pouring acid on them.
Earlier, the sessions judge, Basti had acquitted the two accused.
While reversing the acquittal order recorded by the sessions judge, Basti, a Division Bench, comprising Justice MC Jain and Justice Vinod Prasad, partly allowed the government appeal filed against the acquittal.
The court observed, “These two accused- Ram Charittar and Kishori Lal- behaved as wolves in human form in committing this ghastly crime of mercilessly exterminating the young widow of their own brother- Sushila and also two innocent budding flowers aged about 2 years and 5 years (daughters of deceased Sushila). They did not even have a grain of mercy or human kindness.”
“As a matter of fact, the crime committed by them falls in the category of rarest of rare cases, warranting extreme penalty of death and we could issue notice to them in this behalf, but the appeal against acquittal has come up for hearing nearly after 24 years.”
“One of them, namely Ram Charittar must be about 70 years of age and the other one, Kishori Lal, of 65 years. We, therefore, settle their punishment to be life imprisonment, which is lesser of the two alternative punishments.’’
Commenting upon the motive aspect, the Bench observed, “At times, motive goes a long way to prove the authorship of the crime. In the instant case, the two accused had a strong motive to liquidate her widow bhabhi along with her two infant daughters so as to grab her property.”
“On liquidating them, they were the immediate heirs and beneficiaries to succeed the estate left by the husband of the deceased (Sushila).’’
While analysing the judgment of acquittal passed by the sessions judge, Basti, C Mohan on May 12, 1981, the court observed, “The lower court did not analyse the evidence in proper perspective and acted on surmises and conjectures in acquitting the two accused respondents -Ram Charittar and Kishori Lal. The approach of the trial court in acquitting these two accused is wholly perverse and manifestly erroneous.’’
To recall, the incident took place in Gayaghat village, under Kalwari police station, of Basti district in the intervening night of March 28/29, 1980. The accused had killed Sushila, a widow aged about 30 and her two minor daughters by pouring acid on them.
However, the sessions judge, Basti, C Mohan passed an order acquitting the two accused-- Ram Charittar and Kishori Lal.
Hence, the State Government filed an appeal (no- 2083 of 1981) challenging the acquittal order passed by theBasti sessions judge.
