Observing that the act is a cold-blooded planned murder of a young girl with ferocity, a sessions court has sentenced a man to life in prison for stabbing a 16-year-old girl in a public road multiple times and slitting her throat.
The court noted that as per her post mortem report Sofia Shaikh had suffered 25 wounds, many of them stab wounds to her vital organs and one major wound on her neck. The victim was taken to hospital by police, but was declared dead on arrival.
The incident took place on April 9, 2017 in Vakola around 8 pm. Two eye-witnesses had testified against the convict Ambaji More. One was a pedestrian and another was a biker. Both had chased after him, handed him over to a nearby traffic policeman, who had also testified in court. The biker said he heard the victim scream “Help help, bachao bachao” but the man would not let go of her.
While initially the police had claimed that the two were in a relationship and he had attacked her as he was suspicious and she refused to show him text messages, the police could not prove the motive in court. None from the family of the girl testified either.
The court said the absence of motive or the relationship not being established could be because it was personal and to the knowledge of the accused and the victim only. Principal Sessions judge A. Subramaniam said this cannot be detrimental to the prosecution’s case.
The court said the nature of the incident, the causing of 25 injuries shows the clear cut slitting of the neck and shows the intention of causing the death of the victim.
