HC upholds lifer to ex-soldier for shooting doctor dead

New Delhi : The Delhi High Court has upheld the life imprisonment awarded to a former soldier for shooting dead a cardiologist here in 2012 while trying to forcibly take away the doctor's domestic help, whom he claimed to be in love with.

The high court said the conduct of the convict post the gruesome murder has not only been "unjust, unfair and unreasonable", but also showed a "propensity to commit crime". It also noted that before this murder, five other FIRs were lodged against him.

"The police, jail administration and civil administration must do all to ensure that society at large is protected from such individuals," a bench of Justices Manmohan and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal said.

The bench dismissed the appeal of former Indian Army Sepoy Dharmendra Kumar Tandon and upheld the life term awarded to him for murdering doctor Sanjeev Dhawan of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital after a scuffle.

The high court said, "deceased Dr. Sanjeev Dhawan was a principled, courageous and a just citizen, who did his best to protect his helpless maid servant Sangeeta Kaur. "Dhawan did not succumb to threats, pressure or unjust and unfair demands of an obsessive person, that is, appellant- accused, who despite being married to Ramin Tandon and having children wanted custody of Sangeeta Kaur at any cost."

On September 18, 2012, Tandon asked the doctor to send Sangeeta with him and threatened to kill him otherwise, the prosecution had said. He reached the society of the victim at night and trespassed into the neighbour's floor with a double-barrel gun creating terror while trying to find Sangeeta.

He then fired a couple of shots from the road out of which one critically hit Dhawan and killed him. Tandon was apprehended with the weapon from a nearby area by investigating officers.