Stalker gets life term for killing the girl’s father

A 35-year-old man has been sentenced to life imprisonment for stabbing the father of a girl he was stalking and harassing in Mumbai.

MUMBAI: A 35-year-old man was sentenced to life imprisonment last week for stabbing the father of a girl whom he was stalking and harassing in June 2014. The accused, Raja alias Raju Asari, had threatened the girl that if she didn’t keep in touch with him, he would kill her father.

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The case was registered at the Dahisar police station based on a complaint lodged by Prema, wife of the deceased Balvinder Kaushal. According to the case, on June 26, 2014, they were in their house when the accused abused someone outside their house. When they went to check, they saw that the accused was assaulting and abusing their son Saitejas, who had returned from school. The couple intervened and pacified the accused.

However, after some 10 minutes, at around 1:45pm the accused returned with a knife and began abusing Balvinder, who was sitting outside his house. When Balvinder got up to go inside his house, the accused came close to him stabbed him and ran away. Balvinder was rushed to Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital where he succumbed to the injuries on June 26, 2014.

During investigation, it was revealed that the accused was attracted to the daughter of the victim Nandadip Kaushal - from his locality and used to stalk her while she was on her way to college in 2014. The prosecution said that Nandadip was the star witness in the case who deposed before the court that in 2014 she was studying in 12th standard when one day while going to college the accused stopped her and threatened her that if she refused to speak to him, he would kill her father.

The girl further said that since she feared the accused, she started talking to her. When her mother confronted her about the accused, she revealed this to her family. Thereafter the deceased approached the accused and asked her to not speak to Nandadip or contact her. Since that day, she claimed that there were altercations between him and her family.

On the day of the incident, the family was sitting outside the house, where her brother was returning from school. At that time, the accused caught hold of her brother and began abusing him and assaulting him. Later, he killed her father, she said.

The lawyer for the accused claimed that this is not the case of a murder but is a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder as the accused had no intention. The court however, rejected the defence and said, “Initially, the accused started abusing and beating Saitejas, when the deceased came to pacify the quarrel, the accused also assaulted the deceased, he went away from there and after 10 to 15 minutes, he again back armed with knife and stabbed the deceased. It goes to prove that it was premeditated or pre planned. From the manner of assault, it can be said that the accused intended to cause death or injury sufficient in the ordinary course of nature to cause death.”