Ghaziabad: An additional district and sessions court sentenced a Sihanigate resident man to a life term in prison with a cumulative fine of Rs 25,000 for killing his uncle using an illegal pistol in 2019. He was convicted by the court based on the eyewitness testimony of his father and cousin, who were also present at the spot on the date of the incident.Judge Manish Nigam said that prosecution witness Ashwani Diwakar, who is an eyewitness to the case and whose presence at the scene and credibility have been established beyond doubt, has established in his statement before the court that his father, Satish Diwakar, was killed by a pistol shot by his cousin Dinesh Diwakar.The matter is linked to an FIR registered by Sihanigate police station after midnight on Aug 23, 2019, on the basis of a complaint filed by Ashwani Diwakar stating that his father, Satish Kumar Diwakar, was called by his cousin Dinesh and he went to his uncle Rajendra Diwakar’s house. At his uncle’s house, Dinesh engaged in a physical altercation with his father. Hearing the commotion, he too reached there and saw Dinesh shoot at his father. “My father fell to the ground. We immediately took him to Yashoda Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival whereas my cousin managed to flee from the spot,” he said.Based on the complaint, an FIR u/s 302 IPC and various sections of the Arms Act was registered by the police. The assailant was arrested the next day and, on his indication, police also recovered the pistol used as the murder weapon. After recording evidence, police filed a charge sheet on Oct 23 the same year, whereas the court framed charges on June 9, 2022. The accused denied the charges and sought a trial.Prosecution presented 12 witnesses, including two eyewitnesses—the plaintiff in the case, Ashwani, and the father of the accused, Rajendra—besides formal witnesses.District govt counsel Rajesh Chandra Sharma said that apart from the plaintiff, the testimony of another eyewitness, Rajendra Diwakar, the accused’s father, also establishes that the deceased was killed by a pistol shot by accused Dinesh. “The recovery of the murder weapon and testimony of the doctor who performed the autopsy established that death was caused due to an antemortem firearm injury. Therefore, all the oral and documentary evidence presented by the prosecution is consistent.”Defence argued that Dinesh’s 18-year-old daughter and 8-year-old son were at the scene, but the investigating officer did not record their statements. The accused’s younger brother, Dheeraj, and his wife, Sangeeta, were also present at the scene, but the police did not record their statements either. “The investigating officer fabricated a false map and altered the scene. Therefore, it is clear that the investigating officer has been negligent in this case. No CCTV cameras footage from Yashoda Hospital were produced,” the counsel said.Citing Supreme Court judgement in Khemraj v. State of Himachal Pradesh (2018), the judge said that irregularities or deficiencies in investigation by the investigating officer do not lead to the dismissal of the prosecution case if the same is proved otherwise. In such cases, careful evaluation of evidence is required. Faulty investigation will not be fatal to the prosecution if the evidence of the eyewitness is reliable and convincing.
