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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Date of Decision: April 21, 2018

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CRL.A. 830/2015

VISHAL

..... Appellant

Through:

Ms. Saahila Lamba, DHCLSC Advocate.

Versus

STATE

..... Respondent

Through:

Mr.

Hirein

Sharma,

Addl.

Public

Prosecutor for State with SI Sumit of

Police Station Aman Vihar.

CORAM:

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUNIL GAUR

HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J.

1. The present Appeal arises from the impugned judgement dated 27^th

March 2015, passed by the Ld. Additional Sessions Judge, Fast Track

Court, North-West District, Rohini Delhi, holding the Appellant guilty of

culpable homicide amounting to murder and convicting him under

Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (hereinafter `IPC')

2. The Appellant was tried in FIR No. 128/2013, registered at police

station Aman Vihar, Delhi, on the charge of murdering Madan Lal Soni

on 26^th March, 2013 at about 10:15 p.m. at D-18, Inder Enclave-II,

Mubarakpur, Delhi. The Trial Court, convicted the Appellant under

Section 302 IPC, with the following observations:-

3. Vide the impugned order dated 31^st March, 2015, Appellant has

been sentenced to imprisonment for life with fine of Rs.20,000/- and in

default of payment of fine, appellant has been sentenced to simple

imprisonment for six months. The facts, as per the version of the

prosecution, are as under:-

i) Madan Lal Soni (victim) used to reside at D-18, Inder Enclare-II,

Mubarakpur, Delhi with his family. Name of his wife was Leelawati.

Leelawati had a sister, namely, Sulekha who was married to one Vijay

Malhotra.

ii) Accused Vishal @ Raju was elder brother of Vijay Malhotra.

Madan Lal Soni used to work as a driver on TATA 407 and Vishal

used to work with him as helper and as per PW-3, also used to reside

with Madan Lal at his said house.

iii) Accused Vishal was claimed to be a drug addict and was alleged

to be keeping an evil eye on Leelawati. Therefore, there used to be

frequent altercations between Madan Lal and accused.

iv) On the occasion of festival of Holi, Vijay Malhotra along with his

family had come to the house of Madan Lal Soni. On 26^th March,

2013, Madan Lal and Vijay Malhotra were taking drinks at the said

house of Inder Enclave-II and during conversation, Madan Lal

revealed about the said habits of accused i.e. taking drugs and keeping

an evil eye on Leelawati. In the meanwhile, accused Vishal also

happened to overhear there the same. He was in an inebriated state.

He became furious. He started abusing and left the house while

threatening Madan Lal. These events transpired at about 9.00 p.m.

Thereafter, Vijay Malhotra also left from there.

v) At about 10/10:15 p.m. accused Vishal returned with a knife. He

threatened Madan Lal claiming that he would teach him a lesson for

complaining against him and then attacked him with the knife and

gave a knife blow on his abdominal region. Madan Lal shouted for

help and on hearing this, his wife and children came there. Leelawati

saw the accused armed with a blood stained knife and she also

claimed to have seen the accused stabbing her husband with the said

knife. The accused, after causing the said injuries, is said to have fled

away. However, when he was fleeing away, Vijay Malhotra saw him

running with a knife in his hand. Raj Kumar (brother of Madan Lal)

was then called. Madan Lal was rushed to SGM hospital where he

revealed all the aforesaid facts before SI Ravinder Solanki. On the

basis of the said statement, FIR was initially registered u/s 307 IPC.

However, Madan Lal succumbed to his injuries and, therefore, the

case was converted from Section 307 IPC to Section 302 IPC.

vi) Investigation was thereafter carried out. The spot was got

inspected through the crime team. Statements of various witnesses

including Leelawati Soni, Vijay Malhotra and Raj Kumar were

recorded. Accused was arrested on 28^th March