Singh had challenged the conviction by the session’s court in 2009.
The Bombay High Court recently upheld the life imprisonment handed down to a security guard who killed his colleague by firing at over a petty issue, in 2006, outside Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s bungalow in Bandra.
A division bench of Justice VK Tahilramani and Justice Mridula Bhatkar while upholding the sentence of Yatendrasingh Chauhan said “He was fully aware of the consequence of his act and the injury caused is fatal and sufficient to cause death.”
Singh had challenged the conviction handed down by session’s court in 2009. In his appeal he had pointed to the discrepancy in the testimony of the eyewitness Sandeep Lakhan. It was argued by him that since experts—the post mortem and the forensic expert—had said that firing was not contact shot (by placing the pistol on the body), as claimed by the eye witness and hence his testimony should be discarded. Further, the act was not premeditated and lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder should be levelled against him instead of murder.
However, after going through the prosecution evidence, the court overlooked the minor contradiction in Lakhan’s testimony. Regarding the lesser charge of being attracted to the crime, it said “It is true that there was no premeditation, however, it is not a case of grave and sudden provocation. The intention does not require premeditation but intention can be formed within a couple of minutes. The intention can be gathered on the basis of the act itself. In the present case, the appellant/accused was working as a security guard. He was holding licence of revolver. He was fully aware of the power of the firearm.”
As per the prosecution's case, the accused and the deceased were working in the company known as Top security and were posted as a security guard at Mannat bungalow owned by actor Shah Rukh Khan. On the night of August14, 2006, deceased Singh questioned the accused as to why he was sitting in the chair and whether his revolver is filled with bullets or not. He also asked the accused whether his fire arm was working or not.
The accused, in anger, held Chandrapratap Singh with collar and then pulled the trigger of the revolver pointing at his chest, due to which the deceased fell down. After hearing the firing sound, security guards and other persons came running at the spot and shifted Chandrapratap Singh to the hospital where he succumbed to injuries.
A case was registered against the accused who was arrested and tried for murder charges.
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