Bareilly – Nearly seven years after a brutal daylight murder rocked Gulabnagar village, a Bareilly court on Tuesday sentenced five men to life imprisonment for the 2018 killing of a 32-year-old farmer, Moti Singh, following a longstanding family dispute.
The incident occurred on September 29, 2018, when Moti Singh and his brother Mahendra were returning home from their fields. They were ambushed near the residence of the accused by Maiku Singh (56), his sons Rajveer (30) and Girind (28), and their relatives Nar Singh (52) and his son Ramesh (27). Moti was brutally beaten and later succumbed to his injuries, while Mahendra survived with serious wounds.
Mahendra, the key witness, told police that the attack was premeditated and rooted in a longstanding enmity between the families. A post-mortem revealed 28 injury marks on Moti’s body, indicating the severity of the assault.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered at Faridpur police station under charges of murder and rioting. All five accused were arrested shortly after the crime, and the murder weapon was recovered. Police filed a chargesheet in December 2018, and the trial commenced in February 2019. However, the accused were released on bail during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Tuesday, Additional District and Sessions Judge Tabrez Ahmed convicted all five based on eyewitness testimony and forensic evidence. Additional District Government Counsel Rajeshwari Gangwar noted, “The murder occurred in full public view right outside the accused’s house, and there were multiple eyewitnesses who corroborated the prosecution’s case.”
The court handed down life sentences to all five convicts and imposed a fine of ₹20,000 on each. Their bail was immediately revoked, and they were taken back into judicial custody following the verdict.
The judgment marks a significant closure for the victim’s family after years of legal proceedings and delays.
