Delhi HC upholds trial court order awarding life imprisonment for kidnapping, murdering woman

New Delhi [India], October 20 : The Delhi High Court recently upheld the order of conviction and life imprisonment awarded to a man for kidnapping and murdering a woman who was pressurising and threatening him to marry her. The High court delivered the judgement after considering the circumstantial evidence of the case.
The woman was kidnapped from the Khajoori Khas area and was murdered in Simbhawli near Hapur in Uttar Pradesh. Her body was recovered from the spot on June 27, 2011, after the murder.
The division bench comprising justices Mukta Gupta and Mini Pushkarna dismissed the appeal moved by Mohd Gulfam. He challenged the trial court order convicting him of abduction, murder and destruction of evidence. The trial court had also imposed a fine of Rs. 1,30,000 under different sections.
According to the bench, it considered the circumstantial evidence of the appellant talking to the deceased whereafter the deceased went to meet the appellant and on the next day on June 27, 2011, her dead body was found at Simbhawli. This place of the incident was pointed out resulting in the discovery of the dead body of Azeema there. This coupled with the recovery of the purse of the appellant near the place of the incident, the opinion of the post-mortem doctor that on June 28, 2011, dead body was two days old, the explanation rendered by the appellant and his conduct of abscission
immediately after the incident, this Court is of the considered opinion that the prosecution has proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt, the bench said.
Hence, this Court finds no error in the impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence, the bench said in the judgement.
The appellant had challenged the judgement of December 19, 2018, passed by the trial court convicting him for offences punishable under Section 364/302/201 Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the order on sentence dated January 30, 2019, awarding life imprisonment.
It was argued by the counsel for appellant Mohd Gulfam that the trial court referred to the part of the disclosure statement of the appellant in the impugned judgment, which is not admissible in evidence.
It was also argued that the alleged incident had taken place on June 26, 2011, and the dead body was found on June 27, 2011. However, the FIR was lodged on June 29, 2011. From January 1, 2011, to June 26, 2011, only two calls were made on June 22, 2011, and June 26, 2011 hence it cannot be said that there was proximity between the deceased and the appellant.
On the other hand, it was contended by the Additional public prosecutor (APP) Mukesh Kumar for the State that the accused had a clear motive behind committing the murder of the deceased, Azeema.
APP argued that the deceased was in a relationship with the appellant Mohd Gulfam, who was residing in the same vicinity and was pressurising and threatening him to get
married to her. On the day when the deceased went missing, she had gone with the appellant on his motorcycle.
The appellant led the police team to the place of murder and also the place of scuffle between him and the deceased. The Appellant was arrested only after the analysis of the call detail records of his mobile phone which became available to the police on July 21, 2011, the APP argued.
The case of the prosecution is that on the evening of June 26, 2011, Alma/ Complainant's daughter namely Azeema left the house at about 6-6:30 PM to go to the house of her friend with a plastic box containing Kunda (Mithe Puyye) and failed to return home.
The complainant visited the house of Chanchal, a friend of her deceased daughter, who told her that the deceased had gone with appellant Mohd Gulfam and Shahjad.
On the same night, Mohd Gulfam's parents came to the complainant's house and threatened her of kidnapping her elder daughter and offered her Rs 50,000 for not reporting or disclosing the matter to the police or any other authority.
Thus, an FIR was lodged on June 29, 2011, on the complaint of the mother of Azeema (deceased) about her being missing since June 26, 2011.