Kota, Mar 12 A SC/ST court here on Thursday sentenced a 65-year-old man, his three sons and six other relatives to life imprisonment for the murder of a Rajasthan Police constable's brother seven years ago, over rivalry in a local cooperative society election.
According to Public Prosecutor Ritesh Mewara, the incident occurred in Galana village under Kaithun police station limits on night of February 3, 2019, when Meghraj Nagar (65), along with his three sons and relatives barged into the house of Abhimanyu Bagadi.
One of them -- Teerathraj, Nagar's son -- shot Abhimanyu with a country-made pistol, causing him fatal injury on right side of chest. They also thrashed him and his father Mathuralal before fleeing.
The two were taken to hospital, where Abhimanyu succumbed to injury during treatment the same night, the prosecutor said.
Based on a complaint by family members on February 4, 2019, the police lodged a case against Meghraj Nagar, his three sons and six other relatives under various sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code, including section 302 (murder), besides provisions under the Arms Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and began investigation.
The police arrested all 10 accused in this connection. Nine of them were granted bail while Teetathraj was denied bail and has been under judicial custody since, Mewara said.
The special SC/ST court on Thursday, in a 135-page judgement, found Meghraj Nagar (65), his three sons -- Kushraj Nagar (34), Ramraj Nagar (32), Teetathraj Nagar (37) -- and Dinesh (35), Bhagwan (45), Naveen Kumar (44), Om Prakash (55), Hemraj (53), and Shailendra(29), all residents of Kaithun police station area, guilty of murder and awarded life imprisonment to each, the public prosecutor said.
The court also imposed fine of Rs 40,000 on each of the convicts, he added.
Deceased Abhimanyu Bagadi was the brother of a Rajasthan Police constable, and motive behind the crime was rivalry in a local cooperative society election, Mewara said.
During the trail, statements of 40 witnesses were recorded before the court and 138 documents were exhibited, he added.
