Liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda, 23 others get life term for murder of Dalit man in Punjab

punjab

Updated: Aug 08, 2019 18:54 IST

Liquor baron Shiv Lal Doda and his nephew Amit were among 24 people who were sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Punjab on Thursday for the murder of a Dalit man in 2015.

A 27-year-old Dalit youth, Bhim Sain Tank, was killed in Shiv Lal Doda’s farmhouse in Punjab’s Abohar on December 11, 2015.

The court of additional sessions judge Jaspal Verma pronounced life term imprisonment besides a fine of Rs 25,000 to each of 24 found guilty. They were convicted under sections 302 (murder), 120-B (conspiracy) and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Another accused was sentenced to four years of rigorous imprisonment. All the accused were present in the court when the judgment was pronounced.

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In December 2015, Tank and his associate Gurjant Singh were attacked with sharp weapons at Doda’s farmhouse. Tank’s limbs were chopped off and he later died at a hospital in Amritsar. Gurjant’s limbs were also severed and he sustained serious injuries.

Shiv Lal Doda was considered close to the Akali leadership. He had fought 2012 Punjab assembly polls as an Independent. He lost to Congress’s Sunil Jakhar.

Doda filed nomination in 2017 too as an Independent from Abohar seat but later withdrew it in favour of BJP nominee Arun NaranG who won the election.

The Akali-BJP government faced opposition dire over the murder of Bhim Sain Tank over Doda’s association with the SAD. The Congress had accused the ruling Akalis of patronising the liquor baron. Doda runs a liquor business in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.