Muzaffarnagar (UP), April 6 A fast-track court in Muzaffarnagar on Monday awarded the death sentence to three individuals and seven years of imprisonment to another in connection with the abduction and murder of a lawyer in 2019, officials said.
Additional District and Sessions Judge (Fast Track Court) Ravi Kumar Diwakar sentenced Rizwan, Singol Alvi, and Shalu alias Arbaz to death and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them.
The court awarded seven years' imprisonment to co-accused Dinesh and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him under Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code (destruction of evidence).
The judge observed that the case fell under the "rarest of rare" category and ordered that the three convicts be "hanged till death", subject to confirmation by the Allahabad High Court.
Government counsel Kuldeep Kumar said that the police had filed a chargesheet against the four accused under Sections 364 IPC (kidnapping), 302 IPC (murder), 120B IPC (criminal conspiracy) and 201 IPC (destruction of evidence).
According to the prosecution, the victim, lawyer Mohammad Sameer, was abducted and later strangled to death over a monetary dispute of Rs 45 lakh in the Ladhawala locality under Kotwali police station on October 15, 2019.
A missing report was initially lodged by his father, Mohammad Azhar, on October 15. On October 16, police registered a case under Section 364 IPC (kidnapping). Following the recovery of the body on October 20, the case was converted to sections 364 (kidnapping), 302 (murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 IPC (destruction of evidence).
During the investigation, police found that the accused had disposed of the body at another location with the help of Dinesh. The body was later recovered from a forest area in Sikri village, following the identification of the accused.
Further legal formalities are being carried out, officials said.