Srinagar: The Court of Additional Sessions Judge, Ganderbal, on Wednesday convicted a man of murder, theft and causing disappearance of evidence in the 2018 killing of one Mohammad Yousuf Khanday, while acquitting him of the charge of abduction for want of proof of force or deceitful inducement.
The court, presided over by Additional Sessions Judge Fozia Paul, held that the prosecution had established a complete chain of circumstantial evidence proving the accused Mohammad Shafi Magray of guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The accused was convicted under Sections 302, 379 and 201 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC).
The court, however, acquitted him under Section 364 RPC.
The case arose from FIR No. 33/2018 registered at Police Station Kheer Bhawani after Khanday, a resident of Shallabugh, went missing on May 31, 2018. His body was subsequently recovered from an area near Batagund.
The post-mortem established that he had suffered a fatal blunt-force injury to the head, with an occipital fracture and extradural haematoma. The court accepted the medical evidence that the injury was sufficient to cause death.
The court said the case was not based on an eyewitness account but on circumstantial evidence.
Among the circumstances it relied upon were the documented financial liability between the accused and deceased, use of the deceased’s ATM card shortly after his disappearance, evidence connecting the accused with the transactions, and recovery of the ATM card and ₹11,700 from concealment in the accused’s room.
The judgment also took into account the recovery of torn portions of the debt document bearing the accused’s signatures.
The court held that these circumstances, considered cumulatively, established a chain connecting Magray with the killing and the dishonest removal of the deceased’s property.
At the same time, the court rejected the prosecution case under Section 364 RPC. It held that telephonic contact between the accused and deceased did not by itself establish that the deceased had been compelled or deceitfully induced to move from one place to another.
The court observed that the relevant portion of the alleged police confession was inadmissible and could not fill that evidentiary gap.
The court consequently convicted Magray under Sections 302, 379 and 201 RPC and acquitted him under Section 364. No sentence was imposed immediately.
The court directed that the convict, who remains in judicial custody, be produced on October 15, 2026, for a separate hearing on the question of sentence, allowing both sides to place material concerning aggravating and mitigating circumstances before the court.
