Tea shop owner gets life imprisonment for killing customer

A Delhi court today awarded rigorous life imprisonment to a tea shop owner for beating to death his customer following a verbal duel on non-payment of dues in 2006.

Additional Sessions judge SK Sarvaria, who spared convict Ram Baran of gallows on the ground that it was not the "rarest of rare case", said injuries inflicted on vital organs of the victim established the fact there was the intention to kill.

"Injuries inflicted by the accused being mainly on the vital parts of body of the victim, show that the intention of the accused was to murder the victim," the court said.

Victim Sanjay Tiwari, who was working with Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation (DSIDC) at Okhla Industrial area here, owed some money to Ram Baran, a tea stall owner.

The victim had on August 9, 2006, gone to the shop where the convict entered into a verbal duel with him and demanded his dues.

The altercation turned ugly and the convict hit the victim with a wooden plank and landed several blows on the head and other organs of the deceased.

Tiwari was declared dead at a hospital. Additional public prosecutor Devendra Kumar examined 25 persons including eye witness Chatti Chaudhary.