Srinagar, Feb 26: A court in Anantnag district on Saturday awarded life imprisonment to a man for killing his brother with axe in a bid to grab his property nearly nine years ago.
Principal Sessions Judge Anantnag Naseer Ahmad Dar also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict Ghulam Nabi Bhat son of Gull Mohammad Bhat of Mal Akad, Anantnag for killing his 33-year-old brother, Mohammad Shafi, on 3 March 2013.
“Taking into consideration the mitigating factors and other attending facts and circumstances of the case, this court is of the opinion that this is not the fit case where death penalty should be imposed under section 302 RPC,” Principal Sessions Judge Anantnag said. Therefore, the court said it would be just and proper to sentence the convict for life imprisonment. “Accordingly, convict namely Gh. Nabi Bhat is sentenced to imprisonment for life under section 302 RPC and fine of Rs.10,000.”
The court said that the ultimate victims of the crime are the family of the deceased.
“It has been reported that the deceased is survived by besides old aged father, the widow and three children and all the children were minors at the time of alleged occurrence and still two out of three children are minors including one daughter,” the court said, adding, “Therefore, while passing the sentence upon the convict, the question of compensation of the victims of the crime is also to be taken into consideration.”
The court recommended that Member Secretary Jammu & Kashmir Legal Services Authority shall release an amount of Rs.2 lakhs in favour of the legal heirs of the deceased through their mother namely Mst. Muneera Begum.
“It is also recommended that out of Rs.2 lakhs, Rs.50,000 shall be paid to the father of the deceased and the accused namely Gull Mohammad Bhat.”
The court awarded the sentence a day after convicting Mohammad Shafi Bhat for murdering his brother.
The court had held that the prosecution has been able to prove each of the links in the chain of circumstances.
As per the prosecution, on 16 March 2013 police station Mattan received information that Mohammad Shafi Bhat was taken to hospital at Seer Hamdan after being attacked in broad daylight by some unknown persons by a sharp weapon with intention to kill him. A case (FIR No. 14 of 2013) under Section 307 RPC was registered by the police and investigation was initiated. Shafi was referred to SKIMS Soura where he succumbed to the injuries after a week on 20 March 2013. In between, on 17 March 2013, police on the basis of suspicion, called Ghulam Nabi Bhat to the police station for enquiry who disclosed in Kashmiri language that he after finding his brother alone locked him in a cow shed and attacked him with an axe repeatedly with intention to kill him. He had put grass over him and locked the cow shed, the prosecution said. “The axe with which he killed his brother was kept in the entrance (Gaji) of ‘Hamam’ which he can recover from there”.
Ghulam Nabi was first arrested in offence under Section 307 RPC but after the death case was converted into Section 302 RPC (murder). “During investigation on the basis of evidence it surfaced that (Ghulam Nabi Bhat) had an eye on the property of deceased and was pretending to be sick, waiting for his brother to be alone and on the day of occurrence while wife and daughter of accused had left for the fields when his brother was sitting at home along with his younger daughter,” the prosecution said, adding, “The accused after designing a plot sent his daughter twice to market for bringing cigarette. On seeing the (brother) alone attacked him and killed him”.
