Pune: A 60-year-old woman was killed by her brother and two other relatives as part of a plot to implicate villagers in a false murder case. On Friday, the court of additional sessions judge R.N. Hiwase convicted Ajinath Thanlal Bhosale (40) and his nephew, Akash Shivram Chavan (who was 19 at the time of the offence), under Sections 302 (murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy), read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC. Both were sentenced to life imprisonment. The third accused, Thanlal Lalchand Bhosale, died during the trial, and the proceedings against him were abated.According to the prosecution, Thanlal Bhosale, a casual labourer, plotted with his son Ajinath and their relative Akash to kill his sister, Mangi Lalchand Bhosale, in order to frame Raju Pathare and seven others. The complaint was initially lodged by Ajinath following Mangi’s death on June 26, 2016. In his initial statement, Ajinath claimed the family and their guests had dinner around 10pm and went to sleep inside the house. He alleged they woke up around 4am to an alarm and found Mangi dead with a head injury, claiming he did not know how she had died.However, an investigation led by investigating officer (IO) Ravindra Parkhe revealed that Thanlal had killed his own sister with the help of his relatives. Subsequently, an FIR was lodged against all three men.During the trial, the court found the circumstances inconsistent with the defendants’ account. Medical evidence revealed that Mangi had suffered 17 fresh injuries, including multiple deep wounds to the head and face, a brain haemorrhage, fractured ribs, and a fractured cervical vertebra.Mangi’s body was discovered seven feet away from the house, which stood isolated on grazing land. The judge questioned how such a violent assault could have gone unnoticed by those sleeping inside and how the body ended up outside. The court treated the accused’s failure to explain these discrepancies as a “strong circumstance” against them under Section 106 of the Evidence Act (which relates to the burden of proving a fact especially within the knowledge of a person).The prosecution also relied on evidence recovered at Akash’s instance. Police found an iron rod and three shirts hidden beneath a heap of rags near Thanlal’s house. The judgment noted that the shirts belonged to Akash, Thanlal, and Ajinath, and were stained with blood.The defence argued that the case rested entirely on circumstantial evidence and challenged both the recovery and the forensic findings. The court noted that while the blood-group findings were inconclusive and the crime-scene photographs were inadmissible because the prosecution had not produced the required Section 65-B certificate (electronic evidence), the remaining circumstances were sufficient to establish the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt.
