Court may give sentences in Pushkin murder case Tuesday

NEW DELHI - A Delhi court is likely to pronounce Tuesday the quantum of sentence against two persons convicted of killing a gay man and his friend in 2004.

Pushkin Chandra, 38, an employee with the United Nations Development Programme and son of a retired IAS officer, was found dead along with his friend Kuldip, at his own residence in Anand Lok, Delhi, on the night of Aug 13, 2004.

Additional Sessions Judge A.K. Kuhar Friday held Rajesh Rekhwar and Moti guilty of the double murder (section 302) and theft in Chandra’s house (Section 380). However, it acquitted for lack of proof two others, Munna and Jai Kishore, who were accused of being involved in ‘destruction of evidence’ and ‘keeping the stolen property’.

While convicting Rekhwar and Moti, the court relied on witness Hare Ram, the domestic help of Chandra’s father. Ram had identified both the accused as the persons last seen with Chandra and Kuldeep.

According to the prosecution, Ram was the first to discover the bodies and the last to have seen the victims alive. He was one of the 37 prosecution witnesses who deposed before the court.

“Chandra’s belongings, including a DVD player, that were recovered by the police from Rekhwar’s house also formed the basis of his conviction. The prosecution had also produced photographs clicked at an ATM in which Rekhwar was seen withdrawing cash using Chandra’s ATM cards,” the chargesheet read.

Rekhwar in his disclosure statement claimed that Chandra used to pick them up from Connaught Place in order to have sex with them. Pornographic tapes of men engaged in same-sex activity were recovered from the murder scene. Pushkin’s car and several other belongings were missing.