Showroom in-charge sentenced to life for murdering colleague

A former showroom in-charge of a leading auto company has been sentenced to life imprisonment by a Delhi court for killing his colleague, who had complained against him and also replaced him from his night shift duty.

Additional sessions judge Umed Singh Grewal handed down life term to 34-year-old Uttar Pradesh resident Dharmender Pandey and imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him.

“Only the accused and deceased were present in the godown at the time of murder and as per the last seen theory, only Pandey was last seen with the victim, Sunil Kumar,” the judge said.

“In the case in hand, prosecution witness had left accused, Pandey, and victim, Sunil, together in the godown and when he returned within fifteen minutes, he found the latter dead.”

“A 18.6 feet chardiwari (compound wall) of the godown was preventing any intruder to scale down the wall,” the judge added.

Pandey, who was in-charge for day and night shift of two warehouses opposite to each other here of Himgiri Hyundai Motors, was arrested by police after a case was registered by the showroom security guard, who had alleged that he saw him killing Sunil on the night of December 5, 2008.

The prosecution had said Pandey was addicted to drinking and other vices, and Sunil had complained about it to the management, following which the convict was removed from the night duty. It added that Pandey was replaced by Sunil and he was also directed to vacate the room allotted to him.

“The state has successfully proved motive, last seen, extra judicial confession and absconding of the accused from spot just after the incident and from home for ten days,” the judge said, while sentencing Pandey to life term.