2 min readAizawlAug 22, 2014 05:46 PM IST
First published on: Aug 22, 2014 at 05:46 PM IST
The defence lawyer had pleaded for a lesser sentence claiming the crime was not murder but culpable homicide because the accused had been provoked by the victim.
An Aizawl court on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment a 20-year-old man from Assam for murdering a woman because she had allegedly, on several occasions, drank milk without paying him for it. The accused was an 18-year-old cow-herd at the time.
District and Sessions Judge R Thanga convicted Raju Samir Das, a native of Assam’s Hailakandi district, for killing Mizoram’s Lungdai Sentlang resident Lalawmpuii (36) by slashing the back of her head and an arm with a dao (sword) on the morning of October 22, 2012.
The victim was found badly injured but still alive near the roadside by fellow-villagers going to their fields around 10 am that day, but she died on the way to hospital. The accused was arrested with the dao near another village later that night.
Court papers show Das, the accused, had confessed to the murder before a judicial magistrate soon after his arrest and also before the trial judge later on. The prosecution relied on the testimonies of 21 witnesses, including several who heard the woman’s screams as she was apparently struck, a few first responders to whom she described her attacker as well as law enforcement officials who nabbed the accused.
The defence lawyer had pleaded for a lesser sentence claiming the crime was not murder but culpable homicide because the accused had been provoked by the victim and asked for leniency on grounds that Das is the “bread earner for his old parents”.
The judge however found Das guilty of murder and passed a sentence of rigorous imprisonment for life, simple imprisonment for six months and a fine of Rs 5000.
The defence lawyer had pleaded for a lesser sentence claiming the crime was not murder but culpable homicide because the accused had been provoked by the victim.
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