The high court, which was dealing with the appeals against the conviction and life sentences of the accused in a murder case, also observed that safety is paramount for people to lead a good, dignified life and even if one life is lost, it is an irreparable loss of the nation.
A bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Anup Jairam Bhambhani dismissed the appeals in the case in which the two accused had murdered a 25-year-old factory worker while robbing his mobile phone.
The bench said, “before parting with the case, it would be trite to note that the present is an extremely unfortunate case where a young boy, who worked hard in order to make ends meet, tragically lost his life because of the menace created by the delinquents of society.”
“Safety and security of the people are axiomatically paramount for them to lead a good, dignified life. Owing to delinquency, society is losing faith in the system. The offenders, thus, need to be dealt with with a stern hand. Even one life lost, is an irreparable loss we bear as a nation forever,” the court observed as it dismissed the two appeals for being without any merit.
Dealing with the facts of the case, the court noted that one night in July 2012, when the witness and the deceased, who worked at a factory of slippers, were returning from work, the appellants (accused) approached them on a motorcycle and “forcibly searched” the pocket of the witness.
They subsequently snatched and robbed the mobile phone of the victim and one of them contemporaneously stabbed the victim on his thigh, it added.
The court stated that in the present case, the homicidal death of the deceased was not in dispute and the testimony of the witness – that the deceased victim had been stabbed in the thigh with a knife -- corroborated the medical evidence as well as the statements made by the police officials.
It said there was “no shadow of a doubt” that the bodily injury inflicted by the appellants was sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature and was not caused accidentally but with intention and motive to rob the mobile phone of the deceased victim.
“It can reasonably be concluded that the prosecution has successfully proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Appellants, in order to commit robbery, attacked the victim and PW-3 (witness), robbed the mobile phone of the victim, and stabbed him with a knife causing his unfortunate death at the young age of 25 years,” the court ruled.
Assailing the trial court judgement which convicted and sentenced them for murdering the deceased, the appellants argued that there was no light at the spot of the incident and therefore the witness could not have possibly seen any of the alleged assailants.
With PTI inputs.
