Mumbai: 3 get life imprisonment for youth’s murder over 7-year grudge – Times of India

MUMBAI: Dindoshi sessions court on Wednesday convicted three men and sentenced them to life imprisonment for the 2017 murder of a Malad youth over a seven-year grudge. The accused attacked the victim with cricket stumps, a hockey stick, belt and iron rod. Judge SU Baghele also fined Sudhakar Bhandari (44), Lalit Bhandari (41) and Sagar Bhandari (36) Rs50,000 each. The total fine amount of Rs 1.5 lakh is to paid to the victim’s mother as compensation after the appeal period ends.
Among the 17 witnesses cited by public prosecutor Sachin Jadhav to seek the conviction of the trio, was the victim’s friend Nasruddin Khan who was present when he was attacked. Khan identified the accused in court.
The prosecution said on the evening of January 29, 2017, Hemant Rawat and his friend went to a BMC ground at Malad (W) to watch a cricket tournament. Later that night the accused picked up a quarrel with the victim. They abused him for assaulting them seven years earlier and threatened to kill him. While Sudhakar assaulted him with a cricket stump on his head, chest, abdomen and back, Lalit used a stump, a hockey stick and a waist belt. Sagar assaulted the victim with an iron rod, kicks and punches.
The prosecution submitted that Sagar instigated the other boys to assault the victim after which a group threw paver blocks at him. When Khan attempted to rescue the victim, the accused attacked him. He ran away. Two cops arrived and detained the accused and the victim. The victim was taken to a local hospital and later brought back to the police station after the doctor’s nod. But when he threw up at the police station, he was once again rushed to the hospital. Later, he was moved to Cooper hospital where he succumbed to injuries on January 31, 2017. An FIR was registered and the trio was arrested.
While the accused claimed that the victim, died after he suffered head injuries due to a drunken fall at the police station, a doctor who examined his body said that he had suffered 27 external injuries.
“The deceased did not merely sustain abrasions, but most of the injuries were contused abrasions, that too, spread all over the body. Thus, from the medical evidence, all the external and the internal injuries sustained by the deceased are not possible simultaneously, by falling down under the influence of alcohol. Thus, the defence taken by the accused in that regard is not proper and acceptable,” the judge said.