Delhi HC upholds life sentence awarded to man who shot dead DU student Radhika Tanwar

New Delhi [India], November 1 : The Delhi High Court dismissed the appeal challenging the conviction and life sentence awarded to a man who shot dead Delhi University student, Radhika Tanwar near Satya Niketan on Dhaula Kuan foot over bridge in March 2011.
This came after the deceased objected to the advances made by the convict who used to stalk and tease her.
While dismissing the appeal moved by Vijay Saini, on Monday, the High Court noted that the conduct of the convict who absconded to Mumbai after the offence, was proven from the testimony of witnesses and mobile location of the convict at the place of incident.
The division bench comprising justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal said, "Court finds that the guilt of the appellant for the murder of the deceased has been proved beyond reasonable doubt and duly supported by circumstantial evidence by the prosecution."
"Consequently, this Court finds no error in the judgment of conviction and order on sentence by the Trial Court," the bench said in judgement passed on October 31.
The bench observed, "Even though there were no direct eye witnesses at the point of shooting the deceased, the testimonies of Narbahadur and Ajit Singh were consistent in that both had heard a sound of a fire shot and both had seen the girl on the ramp of the flyover and while one had seen a boy standing next to her with something hidden under his shirt, the other had seen a boy running away with a pistol in his hand."
Both had identified the appellant in front of the police and then in the Court and being independent and not interested witnesses, they had no ground or reason to falsely implicate the appellant, the bench observed.
The bench said that the motive of the appellant for killing the deceased is also quite evident from the testimonies of Pankaj and Ravi who stated that the appellant had been present 2-3 years back in their village where the deceased stayed and they had intervened and beaten him up since the deceased had pointed out that he was stalking her and teasing her.
Both have stated in their testimonies that they had then taken the appellant to the house of the deceased where the father had also beaten him up and this was corroborated by the testimony of the father of the deceased as well.
The bench observed, "The presence of the appellant in the area of the deceased's residence and at the place of incident is further corroborated by the CDR record. An analysis of the CDR for mobile of the appellant reveals that between 22nd December, 2010 and 2nd March, 2011 the location of the call phone of the appellant can be traced to Naraina village near the residence of the deceased on multiple occasions."
On 20th and 29th December, 2010 as well as on 20th February, 2011 cell phone of the appellant can be located near the college of the deceased in Satya Niketan, the bench added.
The division bench said, "The subsequent conduct of the appellant also gives serious credence and corroboration to the fact that he had tried to abscond post having shot the deceased on 8th March, 2011."
"The said circumstance of absconding immediately after the incident of murder would be admissible as "relevant conduct" under Section 8 of the Evidence Act," the bench observed.
Vijay Saini, the appellant had challenged the judgment of the Trial Court passed on 31st October 2017 convicting him for offences of Murder and under Arms Act. He was awarded life sentence along with fine on 7th November 2017.
The Trial Court had also convicted two other co-accused Tabrez Ahmed alias Sameer and Ashraf Ali alias Fuddey for offence punishable under Section 212/34 IPC and Sheikh Shekhu for offence punishable under Section 25 (1B) (a) Arms Act and the sentence awarded to them was for the period already undergone by them.
As per the case of the prosecution, information was received by PCR on 8th March 2011 at about 10:20 a.m. by Ajit Singh that a girl had been shot at Dhaula Kuan foot over-bridge, Satya Niketan. Police reached the spot and found that one unidentified girl had been shifted to the hospital but could not survive. At the hospital, the complainant Rajender Singh, father of the deceased had also reached and identified the deceased as his daughter Radhika Tanwar. An FIR was registered on his Complaint.
During the investigation, it was found that the assailant had fired one bullet at the back of the deceased resulting in her death and that the appellant Vijay Saini used to follow the deceased a few years prior to the incident.
Later it was found that the appellant had fled to Mumbai and his associates, the co-accused with whom he had stayed in the night after the date of the incident had fled to their native place at District Sitapur, UP.
The appellant and the co-accused were arrested from respective places and brought to Delhi and later the fourth co-accused Sheikh Shekhu was arrested from his house who got recovered the firearm used by appellant Vijay Saini.