Ghaziabad: A special Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes court on Monday convicted two brothers from Baghpat and sentenced them to life in prison for killing a neighbour 10 years ago over a delay in repayment of Rs 3,000.In July 2016, Narendra Kumar filed a complaint with the Sihanigate police station, accusing three persons — brothers Umesh Sharma and Ankur Sharma, and a teenage boy — of attacking them with iron rods and broken beer bottles. He said he had taken a loan of Rs 3,000 from Umesh a few months earlier, and he and his younger brother Rajkumar had gone to ask for more time to repay the loan when the assault took place. He claimed the accused were intoxicated and started beating them after hearing their request. While he narrowly escaped, his brother suffered fatal injuries. He succumbed to his injuries in hospital.Police handed over the teen’s case to the juvenile justice board and began proceedings against the brothers. The accused were booked under Section 302 (murder) of the IPC and Section 3(2)(v) of the SC/ST Act (punishment for committing severe crimes against SC/ST individuals). They were also booked under Section 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC for attempting to conceal the weapons and wash away the blood from their clothes.During the trial, judge Jeetendra Mishra acquitted them of the charges under the SC/ST Act but declared them guilty of murder and destruction of evidence. It also imposed a fine of Rs 11,000 on each accused. Both the sentences will run concurrently and be adjusted against the time already spent in custody.“The evidence of medical witnesses has corroborated the prosecution’s story. The iron rod and beer bottle used in the incident have been recovered. The plaintiff in the case has given a clear, natural and consistent account of the incident. The version presented by the accused witnesses was found to be unacceptable,” the judge said.The court, however, noted that the investigating officer failed to provide a clear answer to the question of whether the murder was committed keeping the caste of the victim under consideration. “Under these circumstances, the premise that the accused had personal knowledge of the plaintiff or his family under Section 8(C) of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act is not sufficient to establish that the accused committed the crime of murder based on knowledge that the deceased belonged to a Scheduled Caste,” the court held, acquitting the duo of the charges.
