Two get life imprisonment for murder of Youth Congress woman functionary

A court here in Maharashtra on Monday sentenced two persons one of them a former local Youth Congress leader to life imprisonment for the murder of a woman functionary of the youth wing of Congress in 2014District and sessions judge RB Rote also handed rigorous imprisonment RI of three years each to four others including a former Latur municipal council chief and an excorporator in the murder case on the charges including the destruction of evidenceThe hearing of the case continued for more than nine years in the district and sessions court during which 126 witnesses were examined 40 of them turned hostile according to the prosecutionInvestigators had filed a charge sheet running into 1000 pages in the courtThe court sentenced the main accused Mahendrasinh Chauhan the then president of Latur Youth Congress and Sameer Killarikar to life imprisonment under sections 302 Punishment for murder 201 Causing disappearance of evidence of an offence committed and 120 B Criminal conspiracy of the Indian Penal Code and imposed a fine of Rs 5000 on each of themIn case of the failure to pay the fine their jail term will be increased by three months the judge notedThe court sentenced Prabhakar Shetty Suvarna Sinha alias Shrirang Thakur former civic chief Vikramsinh Chauhan father of Mahendrasinh and excorporator Kuldipsinh Thakur to three years of rigorous imprisonment under section 201 of the IPC and RI of two years under section 203 Giving false information respecting an offence committedBoth the sentences will run concurrentlyThe case was investigated by the CBI the Crime Investigation Department and the local policeThe body of the 28yearold woman was found in a lake near Tuljapur in Dharashiv district formerly Osmanabad on March 21 2014 the prosecution saidHer relatives had alleged that the woman was abducted and raped before murderHowever the offence of rape was not proved against the convictsPolice had initially arrested Mahendrasinh Chauhan and Sameer Killarikar before picking up the other accusedAccording to the prosecution Killarikar had confessed to killing the woman by pushing her into the late following an argument between her and Mahedrasinh ChauhanDefence advocate Jagannath Chitade said the verdict will be challenged in the Bombay High CourtThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever