MARGAO
The two labourers who were held guilty in the murder of their co-labourer at Velsao village in 2021 were sentenced to life imprisonment by the South Goa Sessions Court on Friday.
Additional Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi has further directed the two convicts, Dinesh Kumar, a native of Uttar Pradesh, and Shivnath Mhaji, a native of Odisha, to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each.
In this case that occurred on April 3, 2021, the Verna police had received a call informing them that a group of labourers were involved in a fight and that one of the labourers was killed in the scuffle. The police had further received information that members of the public had caught one of the labourers and the other labourer had escaped from the spot. The deceased labourer was identified as Lalu Singh.
Examination of the dead body had revealed that it had multiple bleeding injuries on both the legs and the body.
While pronouncing life imprisonment for the two accused persons, Judge Kshama Joshi observed, “I am in agreement with the argument that it cannot be said to be a rarest of the rare case for granting death sentence and also considering the age of the accused. However, the deceased was assaulted with a wooden danda and the injuries caused were 30 in number and were fatal and fresh which were to the vital parts of the body, which itself shows that the accused had knowledge and intention to kill the deceased. Hence in my opinion life imprisonment which is the minimum sentence has to be awarded to both the accused and they are also ordered to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 each, which shall act as a deterrent punishment to both the accused.
