By IANS,
New Delhi : A city court Wednesday held four people guilty of the murder of a taxi driver eight years ago and sentenced them to life.
Additional Sessions Judge V.P. Vaish also imposed a fine of Rs.4,000 each on the guilty.
“On the basis of last-seen facts, it stands established that the four are responsible for the death of the deceased,” the judge said while passing the sentence.
The accused – Chintu Malhotra, Gyan Chand Kashyap, Mohd Tayyab Alam and Dharminder Singh – were held guilty for the murder and kidnapping of Kishan Kumar, a taxi driver, on way to Haridwar. They had taken away the car.
The court noted that the men, who had hired the taxi from west Delhi to Haridwar, failed to prove that they had left the vehicle.
“The recovery of the taxi from the accused on Aug 29, 2000, in Purnea in Bihar two days after the incident, indicates that the accused committed the murder of Kishan and took the Maruti van to Bihar,” the court said.
The taxi was hired by the accused for Haridwar on Aug 26, 2000, in the presence of the driver’s son Jitender.
But when Kishan did not return, his son lodged a report with police.
Two days later, Jitender received a call from the police in Purnea district informing him about the arrest of four people with a Maruti Van.
Jitender’s relatives went to Haridwar to look for Kishan and were informed about the recovery of a body on Aug 27. The police had already cremated the body.
They identified Kishan’s body on the basis of photographs taken by police before the cremation.