Man acquitted of charge of fratricide

Mumbai: A sessions court in Thane has acquitted a man of the charge of killing his elder brother by slitting his throat. The prosecution had charged the accused, Ramsingh, with killing his brother Raju Kevat in 2016 because the deceased was a drunkard and had come from their village after beating their parents.

Though the police had recorded the dying declaration of the victim in which he had named his brother as the person who had assaulted him, the court did not accept it because of the manner in which it had been recorded and the judge also doubted if a person could speak with a slit throat.

The prosecution case was that on June 19, 2016, at around 11.30 pm, a security guard, Mannan Shaikh, was patrolling on Satsang road at some distance from the Mira Road railway station when he saw a man with an injury to his throat.

The injured was unable to speak due to the throat injury. Shaikh informed the police who took the victim to Tembha Hospital from where he was moved to Cooper Hospital.  On June 20, police recorded the statement of the injured, who said that his brother Ramsingh had stabbed him. Raju told the police that Ramsingh attacked him.

Judge V.V. Bambarde observed that there was no eyewitness to the incident. The judge noted that the prosecution didn’t examine the parents of the deceased to find out if had quarrelled with them.

On the point of the dying declaration, the judge observed, “It is noted by Dr Abhijit Rakhunde that patient was stable and oriented to give the statement but it is not mentioned by him that the patient was able to speak.”

Due to want of other evidence the judge gave the benefit of doubt to the accused and acquitted him.