New Delhi, May 29 The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a man's conviction in a 1984 murder case here, but ordered his release, noting he had been incarcerated for over 18 years and fellow convicts had been granted remission of sentence.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and P S Narasimha, while upholding the conviction under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 302 (murder) and 120 B (criminal conspiracy), modified the sentence awarded to the appellant, Gopi Chand, to the period of sentence already undergone.
The case dates back to July 1984, when five men, including Gopi Chand and his brother, hatched a plan to steal a truck, and under the guise of transporting pumpkins (sitaphal), hired a vehicle.
During the journey, the group murdered the driver and a cleaner, dumped their bodies in Alipur and Civil Lines in the national capital, and stole the truck.
Five people were arrested in connection with the incident, and one of them turned approver.
During the proceedings before the top court, Gopi Chand's counsel claimed that the approver's testimony was unreliable and that he tried to shift the blame to others (self-exculpatory statement).
Rejecting the argument, the bench underlined that the approver inculpated even himself by showing that he participated in the events that ultimately led to the murder.
"He stated that he held the legs of one of the deceased to make him unconscious so that they could steal the truck. Therefore, merely because he was not the one who inflicted the fatal blow is not sufficient to discard his testimony as one being entirely exculpatory," it said.
The bench said that the testimony was corroborated by forensic evidence, including the recovery of the driver's headless body in Civil Lines Police Station limits.
It also trashed the defence argument that Gopi Chand had no intent to kill the victims.
"The argument that the appellant was not aware that the driver and cleaner would be killed in the process is not acceptable, because their murder was a foreseeable event," it said.
"This we say so because when you separate a person from the possession of his property or goods, use of force is a foregone conclusion unless it is done clandestinely, as in the case of theft," the bench said.
It said the planned manner in which the crime was committed left no shadow of doubt that the appellant, who happens to be the brother of one of the conspirators, was in cahoots with the others.
"We therefore uphold the conviction of the appellant for the offences for which he has been convicted by the trial court and the high court," the bench said. It added,
"...Gopi Chand has already suffered over 18 years of sentence, while taking into account that the incident is of 1984 and co-convicts have been given the benefit of remission of sentence, though we maintain the conviction of the appellant, we deem it appropriate to modify the sentence awarded to the appellant to the period of sentence already undergone."
The apex court directed Chand to be "released forthwith, if not required in any other case."
