Mohali, May 8 -- A local court has awarded life imprisonment to a labourer for murdering his co-worker at an under-construction house in Sector 66-B following a drunken quarrel in May 2021 with brickbats and an iron pipe. The fast track special court of additional sessions judge Vikrant Kumar convicted Umesh Singh of Uttar Pradesh, presently living in Mohali, under Section 302 of the IPC for the murder of mason Buti Chaudhary. The court also imposed a fine of Rs.20,000 on him. According to the prosecution, both the accused and the victim were employed at House No. 1672 in Sector 66-B in 2021, where construction work was underway. Buti Chaudhary worked as a mason and stayed on the upper floor of the building, while Umesh Singh was working as a labourer and resided on the ground floor. The court noted that the murder stemmed from a quarrel between the two after the accused consumed alcohol and abused the victim on May 9, 2021. Witnesses during trial stated that Singh had not worked that day due to intoxication and had a heated argument with Chaudhary in the afternoon, which was later pacified by other workers. The FIR was registered at Sohana police station on the complaint of Dina Nath, the deceased's brother-in-law, who had come to meet Chaudhary at the construction site and stayed there overnight. As per the prosecution case, around 10 pm, Umesh Singh came to the third-floor room where Dina Nath and the deceased were sitting and asked Chaudhary to step outside for a conversation. Shortly afterwards, Dina Nath heard cries of "maar dala" and rushed to the adjoining room, where he allegedly saw the accused repeatedly attacking Chaudhary with brickbats. The complainant told the court that the accused continued the assault despite being stopped and declared that he would not spare the victim. After the attack, the accused fled from the spot. During investigation, police recovered blood-stained brickbats and blood-soaked earth from the crime scene. An iron pipe allegedly used in the offence was later recovered at the instance of the accused following his disclosure statement. The forensic science laboratory report confirmed the presence of human blood on the seized exhibits. The postmortem examination conducted at Mohali civil hospital revealed nine grievous injuries, including multiple fractures of the skull, jaw and facial bones. The doctor who conducted the autopsy stated that the injuries were ante-mortem and sufficient to cause death in the ordinary course of nature. The defence argued that the investigation was defective and pointed to alleged discrepancies in the site plan and recovery of the iron pipe. However, the court rejected the plea, observing that "every defective investigation need not necessarily result in the acquittal" and held that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt....