35 awarded lifer in 10-year-old double murder case in Bihar’s Purnia

A court in Bihar on Saturday awarded life imprisonment to 35 people in a 10-year-old double murder case involving a land dispute in Purnia.

The convicts-- Shamshul, Ainul, Tahir, Anamul, Nazir, Zahir, Sakruddin, Mustak Ahmad, Musa, Omar Farooq, Taiful Rahman, Jahangir, Safruddin, Hasan, Bakar, Sultan, Afsar, Abdul Samad, Rajjak alias Sajjad Ali, Abdul Hakim, Yusuf, Jiyaul Haque, Ibrahim, Shahjahan, Hussain, Ansar, Abdul Rajjak, Rahim, Azad, Kazim, Islam, Saibul Rahman, Jalal alias Kalu and Abdul Kasim-- were awarded life imprisonment and a fine of ₹13, 000 on each.

While pronouncing the judgment, the court of additional district and sessions judge Rajeev Ranjan Sahay held them guilty under sections 302 (Punishment for murder), 120 B (Criminal conspiracy), 307 (Attempt to murder), 147 (Rioting), 148 (Rioting with deadly weapon), and 149 (Unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

As per police investigation, the incident took place on January 30, 2013, when people attacked Jamiruddin and others with rods and sticks at his home at Begumbari under Krityanand Nagar police station and later Jamiruudin and his nephew Masdar Alam died.

Later, the son of Jamiruudin Md Zakir lodged a first information report (FIR) against 40 persons. One of the accused was a minor while four died During the trial.

Additional public prosecutor Om Prakash Paswan said that 16 witnesses were examined during the trial.