The incident occurred on March 6, 2021, when the victim, Surajbhan Omprakash Soni (23) and another person, Vicky alias Abhishek Singh, were assaulted by a mob over a suspicion of theft in the Indira Nagar area of Bhayander East
Representation pic
A court in Maharashtra's Thane district has sentenced three men to life imprisonment in a mob lynching case, in which a man was beaten to death on suspicion of theft, citing the gravity and cruelty of the crime, reported news agency PTI.
Additional Sessions Judge V G Mohite on Friday found the accused, Ramtej alias Gavya Rama Yadav (29), Amarjeet alias Chabi Bindraprasad Gupta (29) and Chirag alias Kalya Shobhnath Thakur (31) guilty of charges under sections 302 (murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 504 (intentional insult) of the Indian Penal Code, reported PTI.
The court sentenced the trio to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each on them.
It acquitted another accused, Shivkumar alias Lala Binder Lodh, of all charges, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
The incident occurred on March 6, 2021, when the victim, Surajbhan Omprakash Soni (23) and another person, Vicky alias Abhishek Singh, were assaulted by a mob over a suspicion of theft in the Indira Nagar area of Bhayander East, reported PTI.
The assault resulted in Soni's death, and a post-mortem confirmed the cause of death as "intracranial haemorrhage and brain contusion".
Additional public prosecutor Rashmi Kshirsagar said that 10 prosecution witnesses were examined to prove the charges against the accused.
The court, in its order, noted that the videos of assault showed gravity and cruelty during the commission of the offence.
Although the accused are young offenders and their family members are dependent on them, the manner of the commission of the offence must be taken into consideration during sentencing, the judge observed, noting that the points argued on behalf of the accused were insufficient to show leniency, reported PTI.
"Imprisonment for life is the rule and death sentence is an exception," the court said.
"Death sentence must be imposed only when life imprisonment appears to be an inadequate punishment," the judge said, holding that the case did not fall under the rarest of rare case category, reported PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)
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