Kalyan: A Kalyan court has sentenced a man to eight years of rigorous imprisonment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder in connection with a fatal assault in Badlapur in 2018, observing that the prosecution failed to establish that he intended to kill the victim.Additional Sessions Judge R V Tamhanekar, in an order passed on Friday, convicted Pravin Mukane under Section 304(II) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). The court also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on him, with an additional two months of rigorous imprisonment in case of default. The co-accused, Satyawan Waghe, was acquitted of all charges after being given the benefit of doubt.According to the prosecution, the incident took place near a grocery shop in Badlapur on the night of Nov 7, 2018, following a dispute between the accused and the victim, Rajesh Waghe.During the altercation, Waghe allegedly fetched a wooden rod and handed it to Mukane, who struck the victim on the head. The injured man was rushed to a hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival, the prosecution said.Police subsequently registered a case against the accused under Section 302 of the IPC.During the trial, the prosecution examined 11 witnesses and presented medical records and postmortem findings to establish the cause of death as an unnatural head injury.After examining the evidence, the judge held that the prosecution had established Mukane’s role in the assault and his knowledge of the likely consequences of his act. However, it failed to prove the intention required to sustain a murder conviction.The court therefore convicted Mukane for culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 304(II), instead of the original murder charge under Section 302.The court also granted Mukane a set-off for the period he had already spent in custody as an undertrial since Nov 8, 2018.While acquitting Waghe, the court directed the Thane District Legal Services Authority to assess appropriate compensation for the dependents of the deceased.
