Mumbai: The Bombay High Court set aside the death sentence of a Nashik resident and acquitted him from a double murder case on Tuesday. The man was convicted by a sessions court in Nashik for killing a 32-year-old woman and her six-year-old son, after she refused his demand for sex. A bench of Justices Bhushan Dharmadhikari and Prakash Naik acquitted Ramdas Shinde for want of evidence.
The bench was seized with the confirmation petition referred to it by the sessions court and also an appeal filed by Shinde, challenging his conviction and death sentence. According to the prosecution case, Shinde, who was the landlord of the deceased woman, forcibly entered her house on April 17, 2016 and demanded sexual favours. When the woman resisted, Shinde first stabbed her son, who was sleeping in the house and then killed her.
Police investigation revealed 28 stab wounds on the body of the child and 24 on that of his mother. The prosecution, to nail Shinde, had relied on circumstantial evidence and also the ‘extra-judicial’ confession of Shinde, which he made before a friend.
After scrutinising the entire material on record, the bench led by Justice Dharmadhikari pointed several lacunae in the prosecution case.
“We find that the investigating officer has not investigated all links or clues to gather that nobody else could have committed the ghastly double murder or to show that the accused is the only convict. The circumstances like extra-judicial confession or recovery of knife, bloodstained pant or key are also not established by any convincing evidence,” the judges noted.
“Material on record therefore, is insufficient to rule out involvement of any other person in the matter. The circumstances relevant to form a chain are not proved by cogent and convincing evidence. As the material on record does not form chain so complete as to indicate Shinde as the only accused person we are inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt,” the judges held.
