Rage-related crime over trivial issues are on the rise in the national capital rendering it useless to speculate the motive of such offence, the Delhi High Court observed while upholding the life sentence of a man for killing his business associate in a fit of rage.
"It may be true that the prosecution has not been able to prove a motive. But in most cases motive is very difficult to be proved. God knows what happened, but something certainly happened.
"In the city of Delhi, virtually every week there is a newspaper report of rage-related crime over trivial issues and thus it would be useless for us to speculate on a motive," a division bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Mukta Gupta said.
The bench concurred with the trial court verdict awarding life imprisonment to property dealer Pardeep Khatri for killing his 24-year-old colleague Ajay Maan on the day of his engagement on March 8 in 2008, a day before his marriage. The incident happened after there was a verbal altercation between some persons on the dance floor.
While delivering the verdict, the bench also slammed the magistrates who dealt with the case for their "insensitivity" as well as for delaying the proceedings by granting repeated adjournments on the request of the counsel for the accused. The court was of the view that in high-profile cases where there was a possibility of eyewitnesses being threatened, coerced or bought, they should be examined with utmost dispatch.
The court made the observation in reference to one of the witnesses turning hostile during the proceedings. A trial court on October 31 last year had awarded life term to Khatri and also imposed a fine of Rs 60,000 on him.
However, another accused Ravi Tyagi was let off as the prosecution failed to prove its case against him.
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