The Bombay high court recently acquitted a 80-year-old man sentenced to life on the charge of murdering his son-in-law who allegedly ill-treated his step-daughter. The court observed that the prosecution had failed to prove the case against the accused.
The Nagpur bench of justices AP Lavande and AB Chaudhari acquitted Ramkisan Dhurve who was sentenced on May 2, 2012. He was held guilt by a court in Gondia of murdering Rajesh Markam and later destroying evidence by disposing of his body in a gutter outside his house.
As per the prosecution, Dhurve had married Pushpabai who had separated from her husband. Her daughter Jantribai was married to Markam. Markam allegedly used to ill-treat Jantribai. Because of that Dhurve allegedly killed him in June 2010 and later dumped his body in a nearby gutter.
A month later, when stench started emanating from Dhurve's house the locals, including the complainant Shivlal, asked Dhurve about it. He allegedly told them about the killing. Treating Dhurve's statement as an extra judicial confession, Shivlal then lodged a complaint against him.
The prosecution, during the trial, examined 15 witnesses, including Jantribai. She had deposed before the court that Dhurve had tried to dissuade her from lodging a missing person complaint with the police when her husband did not return for two weeks.
The trial court sentenced Dhurve for life, which was challenged in the high court. In his defence, Dhurve said it was impossible that the locals couldn't smell the stench of the dead body for a month. His plea also said, “The trial court has forgotten the basic principle laid down by the Supreme Court from time to time that suspicion, however strong and grave, can't take place of proof and, therefore, the benefit of the doubt ought to have been given to the appellant-accused rather than the prosecution.”
The high court agreed with Dhurve's argument and acquitted him of all the charges.
@plumbermushi
