Life sentence upheld for killing mother, daughter

New Delhi, Nov 30 (IANS) The Delhi High Court has confirmed the life sentence of four men accused of killing a mother and her daughter during a robbery here in 2006.

Six years after the four murdered Swarna Mahajan and daughter Anuradha Mahajan, practicing lawyers in the Supreme Court, the high court upheld the life sentence awarded by a trial court.

Judges Sanjiv Khanna and S.P. Garg dismissed the appeals by convicts Bhasker Mahalik, Bhagwan Mahalik, Niranjan Mahalik and Jagbandhu Dass.

The court said: “The robbery and the murder have been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. The circumstantial evidence categorically establishes involvement of all the accused for the commission of robbery and murder.

“The robbed articles were recovered by police from the accused and at their instance from their places of residence.

“A legitimate presumption can safely be drawn under section 114(a) of the Evidence Act that the appellants not only took part in the robbery but also in the murder of the deceased.”

In December 2004, the trial court had convicted the four for killing the lawyers.

But it absolved a fifth accused, Surendra Pal, who allegedly accepted the robbed articles, for want of sufficient evidence.

According to the prosecution, the four convicts trespassed into the house of the Mahajans at Siddharth Enclave in south Delhi on the night of March 11-12, 2006 and made away with jewellery, cash and mobile phones.

The four killed the women when they resisted the robbery.

IANS 2012-11-30 14:58:24