NOIDA: A local court on Wednesday sentenced two brothers, Anil Singh and Sanjay Singh, to life imprisonment for abducting and killing Sanjay’s daughter’s boyfriend in 2022. The accused, both residents of Jahangirpur in Jewar, believed the deceased, Atul Singh, would not marry the woman despite being in a relationship with her.Court declared the duo guilty under sections 302 (culpable homicide amounting to murder), awarding a life term and a fine of Rs 20,000, under 364 (kidnapping with the intent of murder), awarding 10 years’ of rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 20,000, and under 201 IPC (destruction of evidence), awarding 5 years’ imprisonment with Rs 10,000 each.The incident is linked to an FIR registered with the Ecotech III police station on Sept 21, 2022, by Sagar Singh. In his complaint, Sagar said his nephew, Atul, left home on Sept 19 and never returned. He claimed he got information that Atul was last seen with their neighbour Anil, and suspecting something untoward had happened, lodged a police complaint.During investigation, police found the deceased was in regular telephonic communication with Anil. Interrogating him led them to Atul’s body, which had been dumped on the bank of the Hindon river and left there to decay. Within two days, police found that Anil’s brother Sanjay was also involved in the crime.In court, the prosecution examined 10 witnesses, including the plaintiff and four witnesses of fact, whereas both the accused testified as defence witnesses.The defence counsel, Jitendra Kumar Bhati, claimed the deceased had called Anil, requesting him to save him from his family because they wanted to kill him over his inter-caste relationship.The prosecution counsel, Bhramjeet Singh, refuted the claim and presented call detail records to prove that Anil called Atul first. He also said the murder weapons — a wooden stick and a blade — were recovered based on Anil’s information.Despite none of the witnesses having directly witnessed the accused murdering Atul, the court said the unbroken chain of circumstantial evidence proved the prosecution’s story.“The law is well settled that absence of direct eye witness does not weaken the prosecution case if the chain of circumstantial evidence is complete and unbroken,” the judge said, citing apex court orders in Sharad Birdhichand Sarda v. State of Maharashtra (1984) and others, in which five golden principles governing cases based on circumstantial evidence were decided. “All five tests stand proved in this case. The deceased was last seen on Sept 19 with accused Sanjay on the bank of the Hindon river. The body and the murder weapon were recovered based on Anil’s information. Clothes of the deceased and a rope were recovered from a place indicated by co-accused Sanjay after his arrest, and forensic test of articles recovered found human blood on them. Thus, the chain of circumstances is complete and satisfies the test laid down by the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the judge noted.
