Court sentences one to death, 3 others for life

DEHRADUN: An Uttarakhand court on Friday gave death penalty to one of the four men convicted for the murder of a New Delhi-based tourist couple in 2014 and awarded life sentence to three other co-conspirators.

As per police’s investigation, the couple Abhijit and Momita had rented a jeep on October 23 to travel to the Tiger waterfall. The driver, Raju Das, who was given the death penalty, reportedly told the couple that three more passengers — identified as Kundan Das, Bablu Das and Guddu Das — would be travelling with them to a village near the waterfall.

On the way back from the waterfall, it was alleged that the four men overpowered Abhijit, tied him with a rope and raped Momita before murdering them, the police charge sheet says.

However, the additional sessions court of Vikasnagar, acquitted the four men of rape charges in the absence of evidence but held them guilty of killing and looting, said government counsel Guruprasad Raturi. “Judge Md Sultan pronounced hanging for Raju Das under section 302 for killing the couple. The other three accused were held guilty for life term under 120B and additionally the accused will serve 7 years in jail under section 411 for looting couple” Raturi told reporters outside the court.

A joint team of Delhi and Dehradun police had arrested Raju on November 10 in 2014, and he confessed to the crime, according to the charge sheet police filed.