43 Years Later, Allahabad HC Upholds Life Term For Six In 1982 Murder Case

Allahabad HC upheld the life sentence of six convicts in a 1982 murder case, dismissing their appeal after 43 years.

Allahabad HC said six convicts will remain in jail to complete their life sentence.

Source : High Court of judicature at Allahabad facebook

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• Allahabad High Court affirmed six murder accused life sentences.
• Upholding 1983 Saharanpur court judgment after four decades.
• Accused fatally attacked Satish Kumar due to previous enmity.

Prayagraj: After 43 years, the Allahabad High Court has affirmed the life term given to six accused by the Saharanpur district court in a murder case.

While upholding the trial court's judgement of November 17, 1983, the high court dismissed the criminal appeal filed by the accused.

A division bench comprising justices Siddharth and Vinay Kumar Dwivedi made it clear that since all six accused are in jail, they will continue to remain in jail to serve out the remaining sentence awarded to them by the trial court.

These criminal appeals were filed by the accused-appellants against the judgment and order of the trial court passed in sessions trial arising from the criminal case registered under section 302 (murder), section 307 (attempt to murder) and other sections of Indian Penal Code at Haridwar police station in Saharanpur.

It is alleged that these accused had due to previous enmity attacked Satish Kumar with knives and killed him on August 10, 1982. After investigation, the police submitted the charge sheet against them and trial commenced. The trial court awarded life term to all the accused.

However, during the pendency of the appeal, one of the accused Rakesh died. Due to his death, the appeal against him has abated. Thereafter, the appeals were being adjudicated only in respect of the surviving accused - Satish, Shiv Kumar, Ashok, Bhupat, Vijay and Vikram.

Earlier, after conviction of the accused by the trial court, they filed these criminal appeals before the high court and they were enlarged on bail by this court. However, at the time of hearing of the appeals in the high court, due to non-appearance of counsel for the appellants or the accused themselves, non bailable warrants were issued against them and in the light of the non-bailable warrants issued by this court, accused-appellants were arrested and currently they are in jail.

In the judgment dated June 8, the high court dismissed all criminal appeals of the accused, observing, "From the evidence of the prosecution, it is clearly established that on the date and time of the incident, the accused-appellants in prosecution of a common object surrounded the deceased - Satish Kumar, at the place of occurrence, and in prosecution of their common object, the accused-appellants assaulted Satish Kumar with deadly weapons." "In the light of the above discussions, we find that the criminal appeals of the accused-appellants are found to be devoid of merits and therefore are liable to be dismissed and the judgment and order of conviction and sentence as delivered by the, trial court dated November 17, 1983 is liable to be affirmed", the high court added. 

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. Apart from the headline, no editing has been done in the copy by ABP Live.)