A court in Uttar Pradesh's Gautam Buddh Nagar district on Monday sentenced six people to life imprisonment for killing a local Samajwadi Party leader in 2019.
However, three others who were accused in the murder of SP's Dadri area president Ramtek Katariya were acquitted by the court of Additional District and Sessions judge Ran Vijay Pratap Singh.
The court also slapped a penalty of Rs 50,000 each on the convicts, Additional District Government Counsel Nitin Kumar Tyagi said. Tyagi had taken over the case from ADGC Bhag Singh Bhati, who was the first government counsel in the case since trials began in 2019.
Katariya was shot dead in the afternoon of May 31, 2019 on a road in the Dadri area by assailants who came in a car and two motorcycles. The reason behind the murder was related to a property dispute, he said.
"Keeping in view the facts of the case, the circumstances, the arguments presented by both the parties and the nature of the crime and the condition of the deceased Ramtek Katariya and his family, the accused Baleshwar, Kapil alias Rana, Annu Kataria, Krishna, Chandrapal and Nitesh alias Nitte are sentenced to the following punishment. The objectives of justice will be achieved with the punishment," the judge stated in the order, awarding all six accused life terms for murder.
The accused have also been convicted for various terms ranging from 2 years to 3 years for other offences in the same case. The period previously spent by the accused in jail in this case will be adjusted in this sentence and all the sentences will run concurrently, the order stated.
