Two men convicted of causing the death of a 33-year-old man in 2024 have been sentenced to three years in prison.
Abdul Imraan, 26, and Zahid Hassan,30, are to each serve one year in jail, with the remaining two years suspended for three years.
They have already spent one and a half months in remand. The remaining custodial sentence to be served is 10 and a half months.
The two had pleaded guilty to a count of manslaughter following legal advice from their lawyers.
Court records show that Savinesh Kumar and two others had been at a nightclub in Suva and were leaving in the early hours of April 7, 2024, when the fatal incident occurred.
Kumar and one of the men exited the nightclub at the same time. In the crowd, walking between Kumar at the back and his friend Vikesh Kumar in front, was Imraan’s girlfriend. She was speaking to Imraan, who was ahead of Vikesh.
As Kumar and Vikesh made their way out, Imraan confronted Kumar and began swearing at him, accusing him of poking his girlfriend’s buttocks. He then punched Kumar in the face. Kumar staggered back slightly but remained standing.
An exchange of words followed between Imraan and Kumar, during which Hassan punched Kumar in the face, causing him to fall backwards and strike his head on the cement footpath.
After the assault, the two men and Imraan’s girlfriend left the scene. Efforts by bystanders to revive Kumar were unsuccessful.
A postmortem examination report noted the cause of death as bilateral pulmonary emboli owing to immobilisation and severe traumatic head injuries.
In her ruling last month, Justice Siainiu Fa’alogo Bull said the attack was unnecessary, no matter how one looks at it, adding that life is sacred and every person’s life is precious.
