A city court has released four youth after convicting them of beating their neighbours brutally.
“It is also provided under Section 360 CrPC that first-time offender should not be straight away put to substantive sentence unless there are other compelling circumstances,” additional sessions judge Sanjay Sharma said.
“It is also not in dispute that two of the convicts are young persons while the other two have families to support. The injuries have also been opined to be simple and both parties are neighbours residing together. Hence, the convicts deserve a lenient approach,” the judge said, adding that they did not have any criminal antecedents.
The court released on probation of two years each, south Delhi residents Monu, Titu, Ved Prakash and Satya Prakash, who were found guilty of beating up Amit, Sanjay, Jugal and Ramesh.
The incident dates back to March 22, 2008, when a minor altercation took place between Amit and Titu while playing Holi. Though the neighbours pacified them in morning, Titu and his friend Monu confronted Amit in the evening and beat him up with iron rods.
On hearing his cries, his uncle Sanjay, grandfather Jugal and tenant Ramesh came to his rescue but by that time Titu’s other friends joined him and thrashed them all.
“It has to be considered that the injuries were caused on the vital part of the body of the witnesses (victims), i.e., on their head with objects, such as baseball bat and iron pipe. Thus, the accused should at least had the knowledge that by their act they could have caused the death of the victims,” the court said.
While releasing them on probation, the court asked the convicts to pay a fine of `10,000 each, which would be given to the victims.