India News | SC Dismisses Appeal Against HC Verdict in Murder Case of 1980

New Delhi, Mar 2 (PTI) A man serving life term in a nearly 42-year-old case, in which a person was murdered over payment of money for a buffalo, failed to get relief on Wednesday as the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict.

The high court had in July 2018 dismissed his appeal against the August 1983 verdict of the trial court which had convicted him and five others in the murder case and had awarded them life term.

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The apex court noted in its judgement that while the appeal was pending before the high court, five out of the six accused had died.

The top court, while dismissing the appeal filed by the man against the high court verdict, noted that the appellant was taken into custody on September 9, 2019 after dismissal of his appeal by the high court.

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A bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and V Ramasubramanian delivered the verdict on an appeal against the high court's July 2018 judgement.

“We find no grounds to interfere with the concurrent findings of the trial court and the high court,” the bench said, adding, “The appeal is thus dismissed.”

The trial court had convicted the appellant, Karan Singh, and five other accused in the case and had awarded them life term.

According to the prosecution, a complaint was lodged in April 1980 by the complainant alleging that a person had purchased a buffalo from his elder brother Brahmapal Singh at a price of Rs 1,900. It claimed that the buyer had promised to pay the price of the buffalo to Singh but he did not.

The prosecution had alleged that later, the complainant, Singh and others asked the buyer to discharge his debt but he, along with his associates, opened fire on them. It said that Brahmapal Singh died in the firing incident.

A charge sheet was filed against six people and the trial court convicted them for murder and sentenced them to undergo life imprisonment.

The apex court noted that the appellant and other convicted persons had filed appeal before the high court against the trial court verdict and during its pendency, five out of six accused had died.

The bench noted it appeared that the appellant was granted bail by the trial court in June 1980 and the high court had granted him bail during the entire period of appeal.

The counsel appearing for the appellant had argued in the apex court that as per the prosecution, there was a dispute between the buyer and the victim over the price of buffalo and there was no enmity between the appellant and the deceased.

In its verdict, the top court noted, “The tenor of the evidence of the doctor who conducted the post mortem tends to support the case of the prosecution witnesses that all the accused persons, who were present, carrying arms had fired.

“The prosecution was required to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, which it has done, and not beyond all iota of doubt. The fact that one of the injured witnesses may not have mentioned the name of appellant Karan Singh does not demolish the evidence of the other witnesses”.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)