Man gets life term for vegetable vendor’s murder

Ludhiana: A local court has sentenced a man to life imprisonment for murdering a vegetable vendor to whom he owed money. The court of additional sessions judge Barinder Singh Ramana also imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the convict, Shankar Sharma of Chotta Khanna. He had been booked by Khanna City-2 police station on Aug 17, 2021, under Section 302 of the IPC for the murder of Mithlesh Rai.According to the prosecution, complainant Renu Devi, wife of the deceased, stated in her complaint that her husband had lent Rs 2,50,000 to Shankar Sharma to purchase a plot. She said the accused had been avoiding repayment despite repeated demands. On the night of Aug 16, 2021, at around 10pm, she and her husband were standing near Home City Colony with their cart when the accused arrived on his scooter. He told her husband that he had arranged the loan amount and asked him to accompany him so the money could be returned. Renu Devi followed them, saying she was suspicious of the accused.She told the police that after a while, she saw the accused take her husband toward Gurcharan Avenue and towards Karam Colony, an area she described as deserted. From a distance, she heard the loud cries of her husband. As it was dark, she said she grew scared and returned home. The next morning, around 8am, while looking for her husband near Karam Colony, she found his body lying beside the road. She said he had suffered several wounds. Based on her statement, police registered a murder case against Shankar Sharma and later arrested him.After completing the investigation, police filed a chargesheet against the accused in court. During the trial, Shankar Sharma claimed he had been falsely implicated. His defence argued that he had been framed by staining his clothes with the blood of the deceased.The court rejected this contention, observing that if the intention had been to falsely implicate the accused, the hammer recovered on his disclosure statement could also have been stained with blood. The court further noted that the accused never claimed he did not know the deceased. It held that evidence on record established that the accused and the deceased were known to each other and that the accused had a motive, as he owed money to the deceased. The court cited the statement of the victim's wife, who said an argument had taken place regarding the loan amount.The court concluded that the bloodstains of the deceased found on the clothes worn by the accused on the day of the incident constituted strong evidence, which the accused failed to rebut. It held that all circumstances established his role in murdering Mithlesh Rai, leading to his conviction and life sentence.