Eight people, including three members of a family, have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Raigarh for the murder of a businessman in 2013.
Additional District Judge Geeta Neware on Friday convicted 52-year-old Shrikishan Agrawal, his two sons, Rocky Agrawal and Nitish Agrawal, Kanhaiya Das, Neeraj Kumar, Suny Sidar, Bhagdan Chauhan and Mahavir Soni for killing Pramod Agrawal and awarded them life imprisonment, Additional Government Pleader Anil Shrivasatav said.
The court also slapped a fine of Rs.1,500 on each of them. In case of failure to pay the fine, the convicts will have to undergo additional rigorous imprisonment of 13 months.
Three others - Mukesh Agrawal, Sunil Agrawal and Sanjay Agarwal - were acquitted by the court citing the lack of evidence, the government pleader said.
On October 24, 2013, a fight broke out between businessman Pramod Agrawal and accused Rocky and Mahavir when they were dancing at a birthday party in Kharsia town in the district.
Rocky and Mahavir called their friends and relatives and thrashed Agrawal with iron rods before hitting him with a stone and killing him, according to the prosecution.
Kharsia police had filed a charge-sheet under IPC sections 302 (murder), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) on December 15, 2014.