Life term to four involved in murder of coal trader

A local court on Monday awarded life sentence to four persons for the murder of a coal trader in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh in 2009.

Two other accused were given five years in jail by a session court at Ambikapur, the district headquarter.

The court found Sunil Paswan, Siddhkant Tiwari and Abhishek Singh guilty of murdering the coal trader, Gowardhan Agrawal, and sentenced them to life imprisonment, he said.
“Besides, the court awarded five years in jail to two of their associates, Satish Tripathi and Ganeshdutt Mishra, while another one Akhileshwar Singh was acquitted,” he said.

The Court also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 each on the six convicts. According to police, Agrawal was shot dead in October 2009 at Ambikpaur. The accused were arrested one month after the crime.

The accused had demanded extortion money from the businessman and killed him when he refused to pay, inspector J S Saggu, investigating officer in the case, said.