Mumbai: A sessions court has sentenced a 35-year-old man to life imprisonment for flinging a homeless man from a flyover in Kandivali, which led to his death, following an argument over walking space. However, the victim's identity could not be established.
As per the prosecution, on the morning of June 6, 2014, the accused, Dilbarsingh Chauhan, had a fight with another homeless person over the same issue. In a fit of rage, he tried to throw the victim off the flyover, however, Asarafi Gupta, owner of a nearby food stall, intervened and saved the man, said the prosecution.
Gupta claimed that after half-and-hour, Chauhan quarreled with the victim and flung him from the flyover. Subsequently, a crowd gathered, he said, adding that with the help of others, he caught the accused and handed him over to the police. The ensuing probe found that Chauhan threw off the victim from the flyover as he was irked because the latter slept on the skywalk.
The defence claimed that the accused had been falsely implicated by Gupta and a watchman, who were among the witnesses. Rejecting the argument, the court said, “The accused threw off the deceased from the skywalk having a height of 40 feet from the ground. There were two incidents on that day; in the first attempt (of flinging another person from top), he was not successful.”
This shows that Chauhan had knowledge that in all possibilities the death is sure if a person is thrown off from the flyover, the court noted. “Therefore, the act falls in the category of culpable homicide amounting to murder,” it ruled.
