Court awards life term to spurned lover, imposes Rs50K fine

A spurned lover, who stabbed his girlfriend to death after she refused to talk to him, has been sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a Delhi court.

"The repeated number of stab blows as given to the deceased by (Mangal) Singh clearly makes the incident gruesome and diabolic in nature. The victim was inflicted 20 stab blows and was thus treated with bestiality and cruelty besides being subjected to extreme pain," the court, which fell short of awarding death penalty to the convict, said.

Additional sessions judge (ASJ) Bharat Parashar also slapped a fine of Rs50,000 on convict Mangal Singh after holding him guilty under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.

"I am of the considered opinion that the present case can easily be classified as a rare case which in view of the mitigating circumstances falls short of the rarest of rare category," the ASJ said.

Singh, 28, whose relation with his girlfriend turned sour, inflicted 20 stab blows on her and also assaulted her brother when he tried to rescue her while they were on their way to a school in Tilak Vihar here on July 26, 2004.

The court considered various factors, such as the young age of the convict and his conduct during the trial and his family background, for not sending him to the gallows.

Rejecting Singh's contention that he did not intend to kill, the court said it was crystal clear that the accused had come well-prepared with an intention to commit the murder as he was carrying a knife.

The court said the act of the convict, a resident of Delhi, was the result of his passionate liking of the girl and her subsequent refusal to talk to him.

After killing the girl, he surrendered in the nearby police station which was considered by the court as mitigating circumstances. However, it said that the murder was cruel and bestial in nature.