An additional district and sessions court in Mangaluru on Tuesday, April 30, sentenced four persons, who were declared guilty in a murder case in 2015, to life imprisonment with ₹25,000 fine on each of them.
The first Additional District and Sessions Judge H.S. Mallikarjuna Swamy, who had on April 8 convicted Vijeth Kumar, 22, Kiran Poojary, 24, Aneesh alias Dhanu, 23, and Abhi alias Abhijith, 24, for the murder of Mohammed Nasir, pronounced the sentence on Tuesday. The then Bantwal Police Inspector K.U. Belliappa had filed the chargesheet.
It was contended by the prosecution that the accused assaulted the deceased and one Mohammed Mustafa, an autorickshaw driver, the complainant in the case with swords, when the former was travelling in the latter’s vehicle at Kandur-Kolake in Sajipa Muda village on the night of August 6, 2015. While Nasir succumbed, Mustafa survived the attack.
The Prosecution contended that the murder was in retaliation to the attack on Vijeth Kumar and Abhijith the previous night by four or five Muslim youths in Alabe of Kolnad village in Bantwal taluk. Convicts 2 and 3 joined the remaining two and followed the autorickshaw in which the deceased Nasir was travelling from Melkar to Mudipu on two motorcycles. After ascertaining that the driver and the passenger were Muslims, they unleashed the lethal attack.
The Judge directed the fine amount be paid to victim’s wife Rahamath alias Ramlath besides ordering compensation from the State Legal Services Authority. Complainant Mustafa too should be paid compensation from the Authority, he said.
Public Prosecutor Shekhar Shetty adduced evidence by 29 witnesses while another Public Prosecutor Judith O.M. Crasta presented arguments.
