A 37-year-old man was sentenced to rigorous life imprisonment by a city court on Thursday for killing his 31-year-old neighbour in Sector 12, Gurugram in February 2020, said police on Friday.
The court of additional sessions judge Sunil Chauhan convicted Lavan Batra, 37, under sections 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of Indian Penal Code and imposed an overall fine of ₹30,000.
Police said the incident took place on the night of February 7, 2020, when Batra called his neighbour, Bunti Hasija, 31, a resident of Madanpuri in Sector 7, to meet him at a secluded spot on the pretext of settling an ongoing financial dispute between them.
Investigators said that Batra had lent some money to Hasija and he was putting pressure on him to return the money. However, Hasija had not returned the money following which Batra planned to murder him.
Sandeep Turan, public relations officer of Gurugram police, said after Batra got Hasija drunk inside a car, an argument broke out between them.
“After Hasija got out of the car for a moment, Batra, who was seated on the driver’s seat, mowed him down by running his car over him multiple times. Afterwards, he took out petrol from his car and poured it on Hasija and set his body on fire before fleeing from the spot,” said Turan.
Turan said forensic investigation and autopsy ascertained that Hasija had died of blunt injuries that was caused after being hit by the car and being run over.
“The body was found the morning of February 8. On the next day, a crime branch team arrested Batra from Sector 31,” he said.
Investigators said that forensic experts found Hasija’s blood stains from Batra’s car along with his DNA remains.