Electrician gets life for killing colleague

HYDERABAD: The Principal District Judge (PDJ) Court in Bhongiri on Tuesday convicted electrician Priyabar Gogoi, alias Pitu Gogoi, of killing a watchman. Judge V. Bala Bhaskar sentenced the accused to life imprisonment and fined him Rs. 10,000.

According to Rachakonda police, the accused, who worked as an electrician at Prashanthi poultry farms in Bibinagar, is an Assam native from the Jorhat District.

A year after Priyabar Gogai joined, the 63-year-old deceased Jindar Paul, a resident of Bihar's Rohathas district, also joined the poultry farm as a watchman, and both were living in their allotted rooms on the farm.

Anugu Ram Reddy, Supervisor of Prashanthi Poultry Farms, Bibinagar in Rampally village, Medchal District, filed a complaint with the Bibinagar police at 10:30 p.m. on November 7, 2017. Priyabar had not been performing his job effectively in the months before the incident, according to Anugu Ram Reddy, who complained to the police about it. The accused Priyabar was counselled to change his behaviour by the complaint and other supervisors, but he refused.

He apparently left the poultry farm on November 6, 2017 after consuming alcohol. The other workers complained about Priyabar's irregularities when MD Ragala Shivashantha Kumar visited the farm that evening. The MD attempted to meet with Priyabar to learn about his problem, but he was found to be absent at the time. As a result, the joint MD instructed the deceased watchman, Jindar Paul, to lock the accused's room and not allow him to perform any further duties without his permission.

The deceased therefore locked the accused's room and kept the keys. The farm's joint MD then instructed the complaint/supervisor to handle the situation, and after waiting for the electrician, the complainant left at 7:00 PM. He also instructed the watchman to call him if the accused Priyabar showed up again.

The accused, Priyabar, entered the farmhouse's grounds at around 10:30 PM during the night and proceeded right to his room, but it was locked. The defendant then went to the watchman and requested his room's keys. However, the deceased refused to hand over the keys and told him to speak with their MD instead. The deceased shared information about the accused to the administration of the poultry farm after the accused became enraged and engaged in a fight with him.

The agricultural workers intervened when they overheard their argument and advised the accused Priyabar to speak with the MD rather than the watchman. He ignored their advice, however, and carried on fighting with the deceased. The accused, Priyabar, then went to the deceased and attacked him with the intention of killing him after discovering an axe lying in front of his chamber. The workers attempted to stop the accused after observing the unusual circumstances, but he pushed them aside and repeatedly cut off the deceased's head with an axe. Jindar Paul, who was killed as a result, sustained serious blood injuries and died on the spot. The defendant fled the area and buried the axe outside the home after learning of the watchman's death.

A case was registered at Bibinagar PS on the basis of the aforementioned complaint. During the course of the investigation, the first investigator, T. Ravikumar, CIP, Bhongir Rural, gathered evidence, and the second investigator, S. Saidaiah, Inspector of Police, WPS Bhongir, I/C CI, Bhongir Rural, remanded the suspect to judicial custody. The third IO, T. Venugopal CIP, Bhongiri Rural, issued a charge sheet following the closure of the inquiry.

Priyabar Gogai, the accused, skipped bail during the trial, and his whereabouts were unknown. The accused was apprehended in Puthurkunnu, Kadannapally, Kerala State in the month of January 2022 by the then Sub-Inspector of Police, Bibinagar PS Madhusudan, who had obtained the accused's phone number from Covid vaccine details with his Aadhaar number through DM&HO, Yadadri District.