| Court acquits Nagar, Tarlochan, Ajaib; convicts 2 others | | Infamous Chopra Murder case | |  Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 2: In a much publicized murder case of RB Chopra, his wife Madhu Chopra, his daughter Solani Chopra and two servants, Principal Sessions Judge Jammu RS Jain today acquitted Nagar Singh, Trilochan Wazir Ex-MLC, Ajaib Singh, Raju Sumblia, Mahesh, Russi, Vicky, Bhawani Singh, Sikander, Narinder and Daleep and convicted Sangram Singh and Nanju.
Principal Sessions Judge Jammu RS Jain after hearing Sr. Advocates PN Raina, RS Thakur, Advocates RK Kotwal, Ashwani Khajuria, Anil Sethi, OP Sharma, Anmol observed that before coming to the appreciation of the evidence adduced by the prosecution on merits, I may observe that the Motive has to be gathered from the surrounding circumstances and such evident should form one of the links to the chain of circumstantial evidence. The proof of motive would only strengthen the prosecution case and fortify the court in its ultimate conclusion but in the absence of any connecting evidence or link which would be sufficient in itself from the face of it, the accused cannot be convicted. Motive is best known to the perpetrator of the crime and not to others.
Regarding the motive of crime, it may be observed that in a case based on circumstantial evidence, the existence of motive assumed significance though the absence of motive does not necessarily discredit the prosecution case, if the case stands otherwise established by other conclusive circumstances and the chain of circumstantial evidence is so complete and is consistent only with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused and inconsistent with the hypothesis of his innocence.
Court further observed that taking the contention of the defence about the silence of Surrinder Singh in not informing anyone about the criminal conspiracy from 2006 to 2011, so, it is the conduct of the witness Surrinder Singh and his explanation, subsequent to the incident which has to be taken into consideration as to his silence about the knowledge of the criminal conspiracy for nearly 5 years and not informing anyone about the incident. With these observations Court observed that It seems clear from the material on file that the murders of five persons gave a chance to certain people who came together with an agenda to hoist a false case against accused Ajaib Singh, Nagar Singh, Tarlochan Singh and Rajinder Singh and keep them incarcerated for some years. In this design, the effort has been successful. However, despite failure of the prosecution to implicate the accused Ajaib Singh, Nagar Singh, Tarlochan Singh and Rajinder Singh in the murder of five person, the question still remains whether the investigating agency was correct in its initial approach that the murders were committed by the 'Pardhi Gang' of Madhya Pradesh or not.
Court further observed that it is clear that the deliberate acts of violence by accused Sangram Pardhi and Nanju, in furtherance of the criminal conspiracy hatched by them, upon the persons of Rajinder Bhushan Chopra, Madhu Chopra, Saloni Chopra, Jagan and Sonu which resulted in the death of the said is Culpable Homicide amounting to Murder. Accused committed the offence knowing it to be so imminently dangerous that it must in all probability cause death, or such bodily injury as is likely to cause death and committed the offence without any excuse for incurring the risk of causing death or bodily injuries. The accused are not covered by any of the Exceptions to Sec.300 RPC and the act of the accused resulting of death of Rajinder Bhushan Chopra, Madhu Chopra, Saloni Chopra, Jagan and sonu is Murder punishable u/s 302/120-B RPC and fixedFebruary 5, 2015 for arguments on quantum. |
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