MARGAO
The South Goa Sessions Court has on Saturday sentenced a man from Davorlim Ismail Mulla to undergo life imprisonment for the 2020 murder of Muzahid Khan at Davorlim.
While sentencing the accused to life imprisonment, Sessions Judge Sherin Paul said the accused is young and comes from a family with a poor financial background. She, however, said one cannot lose sight of the fact that the life of a young person has been cut short and it will not be unreasonable to hold that it would be a severe blow to his family, for which they have to be compensated.
“Hence, the accused is sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for life for the offence punishable under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. The accused is also directed to pay a fine of Rs one lakh and in default of payment of fine, is to undergo further imprisonment for a further period. If the fine amount is paid, an amount of Rs.75,000 is to be paid as compensation to the family of the deceased”, the Judge said
The judge added: “It is taken note of that for the offence of murder under Section 302 of the said Code, the punishment is either death or imprisonment for life. Death is to be imposed only if the case is a rarest of rare case, which is not so as far as the present case is concerned. However, for this offence, the sentence cannot be less than life imprisonment”.
The Police had filed a charge sheet against accused Ismail Mulla alias Chotu and accused Sadiq Bellary for the offences punishable under Sections 302 and 323 read with 34 of the IPC on the allegations that on 28.05.2020, at around 23.00 hours, at Bhagwati colony, Davorlim, Salcete, both the accused, in furtherance of their common intention on account of previous enmity with Javid Panwale, came at the scene of offence where Javid Panwale and his friend, namely, Muzahid Khan were sitting.
The police alleged that accused no 2 started quarrelling with Javid Panwale, assaulted Javid with slaps and also tried to assault him with iron rod. It further states that Javid, however, snatched the iron rod from accused no.2 and hit the same on the head of accused no.2, as a result of which accused no.2 fell.
Accused no. 1 then ran away from the spot and returned back with a knife with which he stabbed Muzahid Khan in the stomach thereby causing bleeding injury to Muzahid Khan, who was shifted to Hospicio Hospital, Margao where he (Muzahid khan) succumbed to his injury while undergoing medical treatment.
