Man kills colleague, jailed for life, gets no remission

GURUGRAM: A 26-year-old security guard was sentenced to life imprisonment without any remission and commutation till the last breath by a sessions court on Friday. The man, convicted of murdering a fellow security guard in 2019, has also been fined ₹50,000.

As observed by the Supreme Court, life imprisonment without any remission till the last breath can be imposed as a substitution of death sentence.

Jugal Kishore, a native of Bulandshahr, and Nofil Anwar, a resident of Firozabad, worked as security guards in a private hospital on New Railway Road. On April 5, 2019, while he was deployed on the third floor of the facility, Kishore was stabbed multiple times by Anwar.

Anwar fled the scene after committing the murder, but the incident was recorded on CCTV cameras. A case of murder was registered at the New Colony police station, and Anwar was arrested within a day. He has been lodged in Bhondsi jail since. The court convicted Anwar based on the CCTV footage, and forensic evidence. Two hospital staff had turned into hostile witnesses. The court has directed the District Legal Services Authority (Dalsa) to compensate Kishore’s kin.

While pronouncing the sentence, additional sessions judge Phalit Sharma said that it was a brutal murder which impacted the lives of many. “The convict, a young person, with no criminal background, and having to look after his family, murdered his co-worker in a pre-planned manner. He brutally stabbed a man, the sole bread earner of his family, in front of the hospital staff. He deserves the maximum punishment which this court can grant,” he said.

“If a convict is awarded life imprisonment, he will be released from custody after 14 years or so, according to the jail manual. But, to the mind of this court, such a culprit needs to be kept behind bars till the end of his life. If he is released, it would send a wrong message to society, particularly those people who witnessed the brutality. Also, he may commit the same offence again, having no respect and regard for human life, and the law of the land,” the order said.

Anurag Hooda, deputy district attorney, and public prosecutor, said the order is unique as other eyewitnesses didn’t support the prosecution case. “The court appreciated electronic evidence in form of CCTV footage which depicted the timeline of activities, the criminal’s tactics, and the perpetrator’s entrances and exit directions in the process of committing murder,” he said.

There were 18 witnesses, including two hospital employees in the case.

“The hospital staff retracted their statements in court and turned hostile. The other 16 witnesses in the case including the police, members of the forensic team, and the doctors who conducted the post-mortem gave their testimony in court. Along with this, the court convicted the accused based on CCTV footage, forensic reports, and blood sample reports”, Hooda said.

He stabbed a man... It impacted lives of many. He deserves the maximum punishment which the court can grant. PHALIT SHARMA, add it i on alň session sň judg eň