Delhi: Man awarded life term for killing lover's acquaintance

New Delhi: A man "romantically involved" with a 30-year-old widow has been awarded life term for killing a married person, who was in relation with her, by a Delhi court which also jailed the woman for five years.

Additional Sessions judge Reetesh Singh gave life term to 30-year-old Brij Mohan after convicting him for offences under section 302 (murder) of the IPC, while convict Nisha Pandey was held guilty, along with Mohan, for various offences including destruction of evidence and criminal conspiracy.

Besides the jail term, the court imposed fine of Rs one lakh and Rs 65,000 on Mohan and Nisha, respectively.

The court held that even though the police has been able to prove that both the convicts were "romantically involved" with each other, there was no admissible or clinching evidence on record to prove existence of a conspiracy between them to eliminate 47-year-old Joginder Singh.

According to police, Mohan was in love with Nisha who at the same time was in a relationship with Singh. It said Mohan could not tolerate the fact that she was in a relationship with Singh and planned to eliminate him.

They both decided to lure Singh to a guest house at Lajpat Nagar here in February 2008 and as per plan, she did not come there, the police said, adding that in the meantime Mohan made Singh consume excessive alcohol.

After Singh got drunk, Mohan attacked him with a knife and iron rod which led to his death, it said.

Mohan then sprinkled alcohol on bed and mattresses in the room, set it on fire and left the place with Singh's personal belongings, it said.

During the investigation, Singh's burnt body was found in the room and after the police analysed the call record of the deceased, it apprehended Mohan.

The police said during Mohan's interrogation, they came to know about Nisha's role after which she was arrested.

During the trial, both the accused had denied all the allegations leveled against them and had claimed that they were falsely implicated.

The court, in its verdict, said, "In the present case the prosecution has been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt from other circumstantial evidence that it was Brij Mohan who had committed the murder."

It said prosecution had proved that personal belongings of Singh had been taken away by Mohan and they were found in his possession. The court also said it was proved that both Mohan and Nisha were in a relationship with each other.

It awarded a compensation of Rs 12.80 lakh to the kin of the deceased and referred the matter of paying compensation for consideration to the Delhi State Legal Service Committee, while observing that both the convicts were reported to be not having financial resources to pay the amount.