Man gets life term for killing girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 2017

Additional sessions judge Mahesh K. Jadhav held that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, finding that Pathare strangled the child and later buried the body near Haji Malang to destroy evidence

MUMBAI: A sessions court on Wednesday convicted 44-year-old Nitin Karbhari Pathare for the murder of his girlfriend’s three-year-old son in Ghatkopar in 2017, sentencing him to life imprisonment.

Man gets life term for killing girlfriend’s 3-year-old son in 2017

Additional sessions judge Mahesh K. Jadhav held that the prosecution had proved the case beyond reasonable doubt, finding that Pathare strangled the child and later buried the body near Haji Malang to destroy evidence. The court observed that the crime was triggered by a trivial incident, noting that the accused assaulted the child after he broke a tea cup. The accused strangled him and banged him on the floor, leading to his death.

A key piece of evidence was the testimony of the victim’s then 5-year-old sister, who witnessed the incident. The court found her evidence “natural… true, trustworthy and reliable”, rejecting the defence claim that she was tutored. It noted that “there is no rule requiring corroboration to the testimony of a child witness”, and held that her account of the assault and strangulation was consistent with the medical findings.

Although the child’s mother was not present during the assault, she corroborated the sequence of events and the accused’s conduct. Her testimony, the court said, supported the child witness and the prosecution’s narrative.

Medical evidence confirmed death resulted from strangulation and a head injury. The court noted that these injuries were consistent with the prosecution’s case. The “autopsy findings were suggestive of death due to strangulation with head injury” and held that the injuries, though appearing minor externally, were “significant to the strangulation” and were ante-mortem.

On the question of concealment, the court relied on recovery evidence, including tools used to dig the burial pit, and forensic reports linking soil on those implements to the burial site, concluding that this circumstantial evidence also links the accused with the crime.

While convicting Pathare, the court declined to award the death penalty, stating the case did not fall under the “rarest of rare” category. The court sentenced life imprisonment for murder, five years’ rigorous imprisonment for destruction of evidence, and one year’s simple imprisonment for causing hurt, with sentences to run concurrently.