Prime accused Tosif and his friend Rihan were held guilty for the murder of Nikita Tomar by the District and Sessions Court here on Wednesday. The third accused, Ajrudeen, was acquitted.
The judgement in the sensational murder case came around five months after Nikita, 20, was shot point-blank outside her college on October 26 last year. The quantum of sentence is expected to be announced on March 26.
Pronouncing the verdict, Additional Sessions Judge Sartaj Baswana held Tosif and his friend Rihan guilty on charges of murder and criminal conspiracy. Tosif was also separately held guilty under the Arms Act. His uncle Arjudeen, accused of supplying the weapon of offence, was let off, said Public Prosecutor Sunil Kumar Parmar.
The prosecution had produced three eye-witnesses in the case, including Nikita’s friend accompanying her at the time of murder, and the closed-circuit television footage that captured the incident. The other witnesses were doctors and police officers. Besides the CCTV footage, the evidence included the car used in the commission of the murder, the weapon of offence and forensic evidence.
Nikita was coming out from Aggarwal College around 4 p.m. after taking an exam with her friend when Tosif and Rihan shot her and fled in a car. She later died during treatment. The murder led to huge public outrage and the Haryana government, in its wake, announced to promulgate law on “love jihad”.
On November 6, the Faridabad Police filed a 700-page charge-sheet in a record time of eleven days and listed 60 witnesses. The case was heard in a fast-track court.
The court on November 23 framed charges under sections 120B, 302,364, 366 read with section 511/120B/34 Indian Penal Code against the accused Tosif and Rihan whereas charges under sections 120B IPC and 25(1)(a) of Arms Act were framed against accused Ajrudeen. Separate charges under sections 25(1B)(a) and 27(1) of Arms Act were framed against accused Tosif.
The accused, through their counsel, had made an appeal before the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking re-investigation into the case, but the same was dismissed in February this year.
