Amroha: 22 get life imprisonment for killing two relatives in 2011

A local court of Amroha has sentenced 22 people to life imprisonment for murdering two relatives in Chibra area of the district in September 2011. (Representational Image)

A LOCAL court of Amroha has sentenced 22 people to life imprisonment for murdering two relatives in Chibra area of the district in September 2011. The court also awarded 10-year imprisonment to five members of the family of the two victims on the charge of attempt to murder. The second case was filed by the main accused. Both cases were registered after two related families clashed during a panchayat meeting held in the village to settle their dispute over ancestral land. “Two separate FIRs were filed following the incident, and both cases were being heard in the court of Special Judge Bhagwan Dayal Bharti,” government counsel Basant Singh said. “All the accused were out on bail. They have been taken into custody and sent to Moradabad district jail.” The verdict was pronounced on Thursday, Singh added.

Twenty-three prosecution witnesses were examined in the murder case, and 10 witnesses in the attempt to murder case. All the convicts stay in the same locality, and most of them are in dairy business. Defence lawyer Arshad Ansari said that they will challenge the trial court’s order in high court. According to the prosecution, Zulfikar, a resident of Chibra, within City Kotwali police station’s jurisdiction, had an old dispute with his cousin Saleem over their share in the family’s 64-bigha ancestral land. A legal dispute on this was was pending.

In 2011, the two families decided on out-of-court settlement. Senior members of the community and relatives from both sides took part in a subsequent meeting, held at the house of a common acquaintance, and relative, Sultan, in the same locality on September 24, 2011. The meeting sparked an argument, which soon led to violence. Saleem and his relatives opened indiscriminate fire, in which Zulfikar’s son Yunus and brother Mursaleen received bullet wounds, according to the prosecution. Yunus died on the spot, and Mursaleem succumbed in hospital the following day. Four others were injured in the firing, the prosecution stated.

Zulfikar lodged an FIR against Saleem and 23 of his relatives, and Saleem filed a cross-FIR against Zuklfikar and four others of his family, alleging attack causing injuries. Two of those named in the double-murder were found to be juvenile, and the case against them was transferred to the Juvenile Justice Board. An outcome there is pending. Amroha police had filed chargesheets against 22 people named in the case, and against all five named in the attempt to murder.