25 years on, 2 get life term for shooting dead Dalit vendor over 2kg onions

AGRA: A special SC/ST court in Firozabad has sentenced two men to life in jail for shooting dead a 24-year-old Dalit man in the middle of a busy marketplace in 2000, after the latter asked for money for 2 kg of onions from the buyers.On Sept 14 that year, Lillu alias Riyazuddin and Kalam along with their aides were initially involved in a heated argument with Rakesh Kumar, a vegetable vendor, in Firozabad's Nagla Bari area. Lillu, who fired upon Kumar, was 23 years old at that time. Kalam was 22.ADGC (crime) Narendra Singh Solaki said once the victim asked for money, the accused got into an ugly spat and then all of a sudden, Lillu took out a pistol and shot at Kumar, who died on the spot.

And all of them fled. An FIR was registered the same day under IPC section 302 (murder) along with the SC/ST Act on a complaint by Kumar's brother, Mukesh Kumar.Four men -- Lillu, Kalam, Ikrar and Bobby alias Parvez -- were arrested, and the cops also found the weapon used by Lillu to kill Kumar. The chargesheet was filed on April 19, 2008.During trial proceedings, Parvez and Ikrar died, while Lillu and Kalam got bail before they were sent back to prison last year.

On bail, Lillu started working as a daily-wager in Delhi-NCR and remained there during the Covid-19 lockdown.In his plea, Lillu said that it was his first crime, and he was the family's sole breadwinner and had health issues. He also cited his wife's ill health and his daughter's marriage. Kalam, in his defence, also put forward a similar plea.The court considered at least six witnesses in the case and technical evidence, including the postmortem report and other documents. Rejecting their leniency plea, judge Navneet Kumar Giri of the special SC/ST Act court found Lillu and Kalam guilty, and delivered the verdict on Friday evening along with fine of Rs 50,000 on each of the convicts.