Man gets six months in jail for giving false evidence before high court

A Metropolitan Magistrate court has sentenced a senior citizen to six-month simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹5,000 for giving false evidence before the Bombay high court

A Metropolitan Magistrate court has sentenced a senior citizen to six-month simple imprisonment and imposed a fine of ₹5,000 for giving false evidence before the Bombay high court. The complaint against Shrimant Kore, a resident of Shegaon in Solapur district, was filed by an assistant registrar of the high court.

The Bombay high court. HT File Photo

Kore had on September 27, 2009, lodged a complaint at Akkalkot police station, alleging that he and his brother were assaulted with a whip by one Mahadeo Patil and 23 others. Patil was eventually convicted under section 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The high court upheld his conviction and dismissed Patil’s appeal. In 2016, Patil again moved the high court along with an affidavit signed and sworn by Kore who was the complainant in the case.

Kore in his affidavit, had said that he was shocked after seeing his brother’s body and out of frustration, included the name of Patil while lodging the FIR. However, later he realised his mistake of implicating the innocent man and he was quite sure that Patil had not played any role in the crime and was deserved to be acquitted.

He then said he had implicated Patil out of political pressure. The court thereafter ordered an inquiry, which revealed that the affidavit was filed with mala fide intent to save Patil from punishment. A complaint was filed under section 193 of the IPC against Kore.

“It is clear that the accused has deviated from his earlier statement and has made a false statement for reasons best known to him. When opportunity was afforded to him to explain he went on to state that he was required to depose against appellant out of political pressure and he is helping the appellant in securing his job back. It is unfortunate to see that the person who is pretending to care about the job of Patil appears to have completely forgotten about his deceased brother,” said Metropolitan Magistrate Hemant Joshi while convicting Kore.

However, even if the accused had forgotten about the death of his brother and plight of his parents and wife and children of deceased brother, the court could not turn a blind eye to it, the court said.

“Now that it is clear that the accused for the reasons best known to him has ventured into the act of giving false evidence before the high court, he is therefore guilty of offence punishable under section 193 of the IPC. Any leniency shown would result in a wrong message to society and would encourage others to commit such acts,” it added.