HIV-positive man gets life term for murder
By IANSSunday, January 23, 2011
NEW DELHI - A Delhi Court has awarded life term to a HIV-positive man who killed his friend in a drunken brawl two years ago.
Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau awarded the prison term to the convict, who used to work with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on contract, and also imposed a fine of Rs.50,000 on him.
The court directed that the fine of Rs.50,000 would be paid to the victim’s family as compensation.
The plea of Public Prosecutor Taufiq Ahmed for granting capital punishment to the convict was not accepted by the court.
Lau, in her order delivered Friday, awarded life imprisonment to convict after considering the fact he was a HIV-positive person and committed the crime on the spur of the moment under the influence of alcohol.
“No doubt, all murders are most degrading and depraving but the case in hand certainly does not fall within the category of rarest of rare or even in the category of rare case,” the court said.
While sentencing the convict, the court noted that victim Rajbir was murdered because he tried to intervene in a quarrel going on between his friend Ravi Kumar and the convict.
The convict hit Rajbir on his neck and face with a broken glass bottle Dec 19, 2008 at Ashok Vihar in north Delhi, resulting in his death.
