Duo sentenced to life for murder; three acquitted

Mangaluru: Two persons were sentenced to life imprisonment by the 4^th Additional District and Sessions Court in connection to the murder of a youth on Friday Dec 21^st. Three other accused in the same case were acquitted. 

The sentenced convicts are identified as Harish alias Koti Poojary (48) and Hemachandra alias Guru (24), both residents of Navoor village in Bantwal taluk.

As per the chargesheet filed at the Court, the key accused Harish had some personal enmity with the victim Suresh Poojary (38), a resident of Navoor. Therefore, he plotted the elimination of Suresh.  

The Crime

As per his plan, Harish asked his friend Hemachandra and three others identified as Neelappa Poojary (58), Vasanth (40) and Ramesh (28) to take his target Suresh to Netravati River with the excuse of getting into the waters on Oct 17,2015. As the victim was venturing out into the waters, Harish strangulated Suresh to death with the help of his friends. Then the accused left the corpse at the river bank and proceeded to take part at a function.

In the evening, the accused again visited the river bank, returned back and said that Suresh had drowned. Besides the accused called the deceased Suresh’s wife Sunanda and informed her that her husband had drowned in Netravati River.

Initially the unnatural death report (UDR case) was filed with the Bantwal rural police. The corpse of the deceased was sent for post mortem where it was revealed that there were injury marks near the neck of the deceased and hence the pathologist suspected if the person did indeed die due to drowning.  

Later, the victim’s wife suspected murder, grew suspicious of Harish and filed a complaint against Harish. The accused then went absconding. In this backdrop it was revealed that the victim has indeed been murdered. As a result, K U Belliappa who was the then inspector of Bantwal rural police arrested the accused and four of his associates.

The sentencing

The  Judge Nerale Veerabhadraiah Bhavani of the 4^th Additional District and Sessions Court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment under IPC sec 302 (murder), 1 year imprisonment under IPC sec 201 (destruction of evidence) and I year imprisonment under IPC sec 120 B (criminal conspiracy). The sentencing was done on Dec 21^st.

In the judgment the Judge has directed the district legal service authority to provide proper compensation through the government to Sunanda wife of the victim Suresh.

Public prosecutor Harishchandra Udyavar argued in favour of the government. Altogether 23 witnesses were examined. 33 evidences were presented in the Court. The conclusion provided in the post mortem report by the pathologists sealed the fate of the accused.