Twitter
Advertisement

Bombay High Court upholds life term for Mannat guard who shot colleague

A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and 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..."

Latest News
article-main
For representation purpose only
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

The Bombay High Court recently upheld the life imprisonment handed down to a security guard who had shot his colleague to death over a petty issue, in 2006, outside Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan's bungalow in Bandra.

A division bench of justices VK Tahilramani and 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..."

Singh had challenged the sentence handed down by the sessions court in 2009. In his appeal, he had pointed to the discrepancy in the testimony of eyewitness Sandeep Lakhan. It was argued by him that since post-mortem and forensic experts had said that the firing was not a contact shot (by placing the pistol on the body), as claimed by the eyewitness, his testimony should be discarded. Further, the act was not premeditated and, hence, a lesser charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder should be levelled against him instead of murder, he had argued.

However, after going through the prosecution's evidence, the court overlooked the minor contradiction in Lakhan's testimony. 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. It can be gathered on the basis of the act itself. In the present case, the appellant/accused was working as a security guard. He had a licence for a revolver. He was fully aware of the power of the firearm."

As per the prosecution's case, the accused and deceased were working in Top Security and were posted at Mannat. On the night of August 14, 2006, deceased Chandrapratap Singh questioned Chauhan as to why he was sitting and whether his revolver was loaded or not. He also asked the accused whether his firearm was in a working condition.

An angry Chauhan then grabbed Singh's collar and, pointing the revolver at his chest, pulled the trigger. After hearing the shot, other security guards and people came running to the spot and took Singh to hospital, where he succumbed to his injury. A case was then registered against Chauhan.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement