The court took a tough stand and sentenced all the accused to life imprisonment
– Photo : Amar Ujala
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The court of Additional District and Session Judge (ADJ)-2 Dhananjay Kumar Mishra of Aurangabad Civil Court of Bihar has sentenced 16 people to life imprisonment on Friday. The case is of killing an old man by cutting him with a sickle on the accusation of being a sorcerer. Along with this, a fine of 25 thousand rupees has also been imposed on all the accused. In case of not paying the fine, the court has made a provision of additional imprisonment of six months for the accused. As soon as the court pronounced the sentence, the relatives of the accused started crying and wailing.
Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Rajaram Chaudhary said that on August 13, 2020, elderly Jagdish Ram was accused of being a sorcerer by the villagers of Samda-Ibrahimpur village of Kutumba police station area and was murdered by cutting him with a tangi. After the incident, based on the statement of the deceased’s daughter-in-law Pushpa Devi, Kutumba police station registered FIR number 133/2020 under sections 147, 148, 302 and 3/4 of the Witchcraft Act. In the FIR, 16 people from the village were named as accused.
He said that after hearing the evidence provided by the government side and the arguments of the defense side, the court sentenced all 16 accused to life imprisonment and a fine of 25 thousand rupees each. He also said that by sentencing the culprits after four years, the victim’s family has got justice and the soul of the deceased would have got peace. In this case, APP Rajaram Chaudhary from the government side and advocates Sonu Singh, Yogesh Mishra and Gupteshwar Kumar from the defense side participated in the judicial debate.
According to information, the accused who were sentenced to life imprisonment by the court include Suresh Ram, Ravindra Ram, Surendra Ram, Satyendra Ram, Maharaj Ram, Uday Ram, Shatrughan Ram, Vineet Ram, Manorama Devi, Sudama Ram, Balindra Ram, Rakesh Ram, Ramdev Ram, Rajan Ram, Lalita Devi and Mukesh Ram, residents of Samda-Ibrahimpur village of Kutumba police station.