Aastha Thakur
Published on: 02 November 2022 at 16:00 IST
The Delhi High Court upheld the man’s conviction and life sentence on Monday after he fatally shot Radhika Tanwar, a student at Delhi University, in 2011 when she refused his advances.
The appeal was heard by Justices Mukta Gupta and Anish Dayal said that the evidence on record showed that Vijay Saini, who had shot Tanwar in broad daylight on Women’s Day in 2011, was guilty.
In its 26-page judgement, “This Court finds that the guilt of the appellant for the murder of the deceased has been proved beyond reasonable doubt and duly supported by circumstantial evidence by the prosecution. Consequently, this Court finds no error in the impugned judgment of conviction and order on sentence by the learned Trial Court,”
The accused, Saini contested the order passed by a sessions court in October 2017 holding him responsible for murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant provisions of the Arms Act.
According to the prosecution’s case, Tanwar was shot by Saini in broad daylight at the Dhaula Kuan footover bridge right outside Ram Lal Anand College. It was said that Saini used to stalk the girl when both of them lived in the same neighbourhood. For this, Tanwar was badly beaten by the people.
The bench relied on the statements of two witnesses who, despite not having seen the incident itself, had seen Saini leave the scene shortly after it occurred.
The court observed that, “Even though there were no direct eye witnesses at the point of shooting the deceased, the evidence of the two witnesses, was consistent, wherein, both had heard a sound of a fire shot and both had seen the girl on the ramp of the flyover and while one had seen a boy standing next to her with something hidden under his shirt other had seen a boy running away with pistol in his hand,”
The bench further mentions that both had identified the appellant in front of the police and then in the Court. They were independent and uninterested witnesses.
The court also refer instances, when appellant had visited the victim’s village two to three years before to the occurrence, according to the witness testimony from the victim’s village. These guys claimed that they had stepped in and assaulted the appellant after the deceased informed them that he was harassing and stalking her.
The court also observed the activity of the appellant aftermath, where he first disposed of the weapon – a country made pistol, in his friend’s house or co-accused. Then he left for Mumbai the next day and all of his friends too fled for their native places in UP. However, the police caught Saini from Mumbai’s Vikhroli area on March 11, 2011 and brought to deliver justice.
The bench upheld the appellant’s conviction after noting that the prosecution had established the chain of events against him beyond a reasonable doubt.
Saini was initially denied bail in April of this year by a High Court bench headed by Justice Siddharth Mridul earlier this year, observing that there should be zero tolerance to anybody who intimidates a girl, woman or child and that society should ensure that women do not have to fear when they step out of their homes.
