Four convicted in 2014 Nido Tania killing case
The accused have been handed prison sentences ranging from 3 to 10 years; Rs. 20K fine
New Delhi: Four of the adult accused in the 2014 Lajpat Nagar killing of Nido Tania, were on Thursday found guilty and convicted by a Delhi court which duly handed prison sentences along with fines of Rs 20,000 for each, officials here said.
Farman was sentenced to 10 years, Pawan and Sunder were sentenced to seven years and Sunny Uppal was sentenced to three years in jail for the killing the student from Arunachal Pradesh, who was the son of a then sitting MLA in the Arunachal Assembly.
Officials also added that the CBI had also filed a report against the three juveniles accused in the crime to the Juvenile Justice Board here in the Capital.
The central probe agency had filed a chargesheet against the four accused in May 2014 but had not added murder charges, saying at the time that investigators could not find any evidence of the crime having been premeditated.
The CBI had charged the four accused persons under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 342 (wrongful confinement), 201 (destruction of evidence) and 34 (common purpose) of the Indian Penal Code along with the relevant sections of the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.
According to investigators probing the case, Tania was in Lajpat Nagar trying to locate a mutual friend's house with a few other companions on January 29, 2014. While asking for directions at a Paneer shop, he was allegedly ridiculed for his hairstyle, after which Tania — the son of an erstwhile Congress MLA — in a fit of rage, broke the shop's glass counter. Tania was brutally beaten up in the fight that ensued and succumbed to his injuries the next day.
According to the panel of doctors who performed his post mortem at AIIMS here, Tania died due to a cerebro pulmonary edema caused by a blunt weapon. The student had suffered internal injuries to his brain and lungs.
The case had caused quite a stir across the Capital when it came to light with sharp reactions from political parties and human rights organisations alike. The incident had also led to a series of protests in Delhi by the victim's friends, family and members of the North-Eastern community.
While the case was first probed by the Delhi Police, it was transferred to the CBI on orders of the Central Government after Tania's parents met with then Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
The victim's family had at one point also alleged that Delhi Police had taken Tania to the scene of the crime, where he was assaulted a second time, with Delhi Police strongly denying all of these allegations.
