Double murder: HC commutes death sentence to life term

A Division Bench pronounced the judgment,holding that the murder did not fall under the ‘rarest of rare’ category.

Anand Kindo,Dhingra’s driver who also worked as their domestic help,and his friend Rajan were awarded death on June 13,2008. Kindo’s wife Sandhya was given four years’ imprisonment for conspiring and destroying evidence. The fourth accused,Ajit Topu,is still absconding.

The court acquitted Sandhya on Friday owing to lack of evidence. The couple was found murdered at their first-floor residence in Sector 25,Panchkula,on May 13,2007.

The crime came to light when a UT constable went to the Dhingras’ house to enquire about a car with a Tamil Nadu registration number. The car belonged to Dhingra,which the accused had allegedly stolen after killing the couple. The car met with an accident in Chandigarh soon after the crime.

While Topu gave a slip to the officers,the police detained Kindo and Rajan on charges of rash driving. They were later released.

The police had recovered a few documents from the car bearing Dhingra’s name. The constable informed the Panchkula police after he discovered a foul smell coming out of Dhingra’s residence.

The bodies bore multiple injuries on the heads and the house was found ransacked. The three were later arrested from different places.

The defence counsel had submitted that the police foisted a false case citing robbery as the motive. He had argued that gold jewellery of the deceased was recovered from their house and thus,robbery could not be a ground for murder.