HC commutes life term of retired cop to four years

The Bombay high court recently commuted the life term handed down to an 86-year-old retired Pune police inspector, for killing his neighbour over a property dispute in February 2004, to a four-year jail term.

The Bombay high court recently commuted the life term handed down to an 86-year-old retired Pune police inspector, for killing his neighbour over a property dispute in February 2004, to a four-year jail term.

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The division bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Sadhana Jadhav rejected Sadanand Kadam’s plea that he had fired a bullet at his neighbour, Anand Danke, in self-defence.

The bench held that Kadam exceeded his right of private defence by firing a bullet in the victim’s stomach, knowing fully well that a close-range shot might cause his death.

On May 30, 2012, an additional sessions judge at Pune held Kadam guilty of murdering Danke and sentenced him to life in jail.

Kadam had entered into a scuffle with Danke when the latter arranged for the construction of a boundary wall dividing his and Kadam’s plot. Kadam claimed that he fired a bullet when he was pushed down by Danke and his son and the former sat on his chest with a big stone to hit him.

The bench, however, noted that evidence showed Kadam had deliberately carried his revolver to the spot.

“The action of firing a bullet in direction of abdomen certainly amounts to excess of right available under section 96 of the IPC,” the bench observed. The bench, while acquitting Kadam of murder, held him guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.