Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Mar 13: In connection with a fight over the mobile phone at Mukka that culminated in murder, the fourth additional district and sessions court here has awarded life term imprisonment to four persons after finding them guilty of the committing the crime.

Those convicted in the case and sentenced happen to be Shashishekhar Yadav (22), Mungaru Yadav (28), Ritesh Yadav (23) and Jeetendra Yadav (21), all from Bandaru village in Gorakhpur district of Uttar Pradesh. They were accused of killing Ajay Kumar Choudhary from Shishta village in Khagaria district in Bihar.

A contract pertaining to some construction works undertaken inside the campus of National Institute of Technology Karnataka at Suratkal in 2018 had been bagged by Sukhdev Sharma Company. The workers engaged in the contract hailed from different states. The four persons now held guilty were also working for the above firm, and they stayed in temporary sheds erected at Mukka nearby.

On the fateful day of March 11, 2018, they had returned home after work at around 6.45 pm. Shashishekhar Yadav, who was standing next to his shed, had begun to loudly utter abusive words, after finding that his mobile phone was broken. Ajay Kumar Choudhary staying in the neighbouring shed objected to Yadav for hurling bad words at everyone around. Shashishekhar got angry as he felt that Choudhary was unnecessarily poking his nose in an unrelated issue, and hit Choudhary with a wooden piece. The other three came in his support and attacked Choudhary. As a result, Ajay, who suffered grave injuries, breathed his last at a private hospital at Mukka on March 12.

A case was registered in Suratkal station and the then police inspector, Sridhar Shastri, conducted the initial investigation. Later, inspector, Ramakrishna picked up the investigation, completed it, and filed a charge sheet in the court.

Judge of the court, Sayeedunnisa, who conducted the trial concluded that the prosecution had proved the charges levelled against the accused. Public prosecutor, Jayaram Shetty presented the case on behalf of the prosecution.

In addition to life imprisonment, various other terms of sentences have also been handed down to the accused, fines have also been imposed for different crimes under various sections of Indian Penal Code, and failure to pay fine will result in additional jail terms for the persons held guilty by the court.