The need of the hour is to curb the growing intolerance among people who value their views more than someone else's life, a Delhi court has said, observing that such instances reflected a return to "the age of barbarism".


It sent four men, including a government servant, to three years of rigorous imprisonment for grievously assaulting their neighbours, a man and his son in 2007, over political rivalry. The convicts were allegedly then workers of BJP MP Ramesh Bidhuri, according to the complaint.


"The case depicts a glaring example of rising intolerance among the natives of this city who, even on trivial issues involving their alleged political faiths, do not even hesitate in attacking their own neighbours with such fury that even if the other side loses life, that would hardly matter to them.


"A person in a democratic set up like India is free to follow any political ideology, but it does not give him a right to force others to succumb to his mandate," Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma said.


Convicts Vijay Kumar, Rishi Pal, a government servant, Ashok and Satbir were sent behind bars for offences under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 325 (causing grave injuries) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) of the IPC.


"The need of the hour is to curb such rising intolerance and to award a suitable and adequate sentence commensurate to the gravity of offence," the court said.


According to the prosecution, on August 4, 2007, the four accused grievously injured victim Raju, who was their neighbour, by attacking him with sticks and sword on his head, in order to kill him. -- PTI