Mumbai: No leniency for man who killed pregnant wife, son

Showing no leniency to a man who killed his pregnant wife and five-year old son as he suspected her character, the Bombay High Court has upheld his conviction for murder.

A division bench of Justices Sadhana Jadhav and Sarang Kotwal upheld the life sentence of Dattatray Patil, a Virar resident, observing that he has been “rightly convicted and sentenced”.

The HC was hearing an appeal filed by Patil challenging his conviction by the sessions court at Vasai in June 2012.

According to prosecution, Patil strangulated his pregnant wife, Mangala, and son, Omkar, on the intervening night of February 4 and February 5, 2010. He even disowned paternity of their five-year old son, said public prosecutor MM Deshmukh.

On February 5, the police reached his house at 8 am on receiving the information. When the police and neighbours entered the flat, they found both the bodies lying on the floor. Initially, the police recorded an accidental death report.

However, Mangala’s father later registered an FIR against Patil alleging that he used to suspect her character.

During the trial, two neighbours said that they heard Omkar shouting the previous night around 11 pm. However, when they knocked on the door, no one answered and hence they returned.

However, defence counsels – Shailesh Kharat and Manas Gawankar – contended that Patil was not present at the time of the incident. They argued that after suffering from a severe headache on February 4, 2010, he took half day leave from his office in south Mumbai and stayed over at his friend’s place in NM Joshi Marg.

When he returned the next early morning, he discovered Mangala and Omkar lying on the floor and contacted his relatives in Sangli, who informed Mangala’s father. Patil then informed the police. The court disbelieved this theory saying that such a behaviour was “strange and unusual”.

Observing that it did not “find any truth” in Patil’s “defence”, the court observed, “When he discovered that his wife and son were lying on the floor, he did not seek immediate help from the neighbours and did not try to make efforts to see whether they were alive and then to try to give them some treatment. He did not tell any of the neighbours… He made a few phone calls instead. This conduct, we find to be strange and unusual.”

Published on: Sunday, March 13, 2022, 07:00 AM IST