'Imprisonment till last breath' can be imposed only by High Court or Supreme Court: Karnataka HC
Bengaluru, Jul 22: The High Court of Karnataka has reduced the sentence of a murder convict from "imprisonment till his last breath" to "life imprisonment" that would entitle him for remission after 14 years.
The High Court, which gave its judgment on an appeal filed by the convict recently, said that "such special category sentence can only be imposed by High Court or Supreme Court and not by trial court" as held by the Supreme Court in its judgment in the case of Union of India vs V Sriharan alias Murugan and others.
Two appeals were filed before the HC by Harish and Lokesh, the first and third accused in the murder of one D R Kumar.
Harish was in love with Radha, the wife of Kumar, and this led to the plot to murder the latter. On February 16, 2012, when Kumar was working in a field in Chollemarada village in Hassan district, Harish hit him on the head with a rod, kicked him on the head and chest and murdered him.
Later, with the help of his brother Lokesh, he transported the body in a goods rickshaw and buried it in a vacant land.
Harish, Radha and Lokesh were put on trial and convicted by a sessions court in Hassan on April 25, 2017. Harish was sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life i.e., till his last breath, and a fine of Rs 50,000 under Section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code. He was also sentenced under Section 120(B) and Section 201 of the IPC. He was also ordered to pay Rs 3 lakh to the two children of Kumar.
The HC bench of Justices K Somashekar and Rajesh Rai K upheld the conviction of Harish but said the sentence by the trial court was not correct.
"The sentence imposed against accused No. 1 by the trial court by directing him to undergo imprisonment i.e., till his last breath is concerned, in our considered opinion the said sentence is not sustainable under law for the reason that the Hon'ble apex court in the case of Union of India vs V Sriharan alias Murugan and others. In such circumstances, the sessions court cannot exercise such power to impose imprisonment to accused No. 1 till his last breath," it said.
The HC said the Supreme Court has mandated three tests -- crime test, criminal test and rarest rare test -- in such cases.
"So for as the present case is concerned, both the crime and criminal tests have been satisfied against the accused but, rarest rare test is concerned, the prosecution failed to prove the same by leading cogent evidence that the crime was committed in a barbaric manner and hence the instant case would not fall under the category of rarest of the rare case. As such, the punishment awarded by the trial court by imposing the imprisonment to accused No. 1 till his last breath has to be modified to life imprisonment instead of the last breath of his life," the HC said.
The HC also set aside all the charges against Lokesh. It said "the prosecution failed to prove his guilt by leading any cogent evidence". He had been convicted by the trial court solely on the basis of the voluntary statement of the co-accused (Harish). "It is the settled position of law that the voluntary statement of the co-accused cannot be a base for conviction of other accused," the HC said.
The petitions of the first and third convict were heard and a common judgement delivered by the division bench. The second convict (Radha) had not filed an appeal.
The bail and surety bond of Harish was cancelled and he was given two weeks to surrender before the trial court to serve his sentence.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
