HC frees two men sentenced for killing 85-year-old Dadar resident

Bombay HC acquits two Odisha residents sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of an elderly woman during a robbery in Dadar in 2011.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) recently acquitted two Odisha residents sentenced to life imprisonment for killing an 85-year-old woman during a robbery at her residence in Dadar in September 2011.

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The division bench of justice Anuja Prabhudessai and justice NR Borkar held that there was absolutely no evidence to connect the two – Jitendrakumar Sahu and Ashokumar Jaiswal – with the crime, except for the recovery of some stolen articles at the behest of one of them and the prosecution had failed to prove the recovery beyond a reasonable doubt.

According to the prosecution, the victim, Tabeta Fonseca, 85, resided alone in the Fonseca Building in Dadar. On September 8, 2011, her daughter Ruth D’souza called her multiple times, but the calls went unanswered. The next morning when D’souza went to check on her, she found her lying dead in her house, the safe of her cupboard was open and cash and jewellery were missing.

Based on D’souza’s statement, the Matunga police registered a murder and robbery case and started an investigation. Sahu, who ran a PCO booth in the locality, had absconded during the time and therefore the police suspected that he could be involved in the robbery and murder of the elderly woman.

Police eventually traced him to his native place and also arrested Jaiswal in connection with the crime on September 16, 2011. Police officials claimed that Sahu had got some gold jewels melted in Odisha and later sold them to a jeweller, whereas they claimed to have recovered some other articles -- two high-end wristwatches, three premium pens, some earrings and some coins and currency of different countries – hidden by him in a public toilet in Matunga.

The prosecution examined all 10 witnesses in proving their case against the two and based on the evidence, the sessions court had on May 8, 2014, convicted and sentenced the duo to life imprisonment for murdering the elderly woman during a robbery committed at her residence.

The high court, however, noticed loopholes in the prosecution case and noted that the daughter of the victim had identified the stolen articles recovered by the police, but “her testimony did not indicate that she had seen the articles in her mother’s residence before the incident.

“There is no other evidence to prove that these items which were allegedly recovered at the instance of the accused (Jaiswal) belonged either to the deceased or her son,” said the bench. “It is also relevant to note that the articles, which were allegedly recovered pursuant to the disclosure statements, are otherwise easily available in the market,” it added.

The bench also found “improbable and doubtful” that the prosecution story noted the recovered articles were kept in a public lavatory. The court refused to accept the evidence pertaining to the recovery, also because one of the panchas, who witnessed the recording of Jaiswal’s disclosure statement and consequent recovery of the wrist watches etc., had in terms stated in his deposition that he had not visited the public lavatory and his signature on the memorandum was taken at the police station. Besides, the court noted that there were discrepancies in details of the seized articles mentioned by the two panch witnesses.

“There is no other evidence on record which even remotely points towards the guilt of the accused,” the court said while reversing the conviction of the two. “In such circumstances, the trial court was not justified in holding the accused guilty of the charge.”