Pune: A 13-year-old boy’s testimony helped a court convict a man and his son of murdering a 38-year-old man in Pune district in 2021, despite the victim’s mother, who had lodged the FIR naming the accused, not fully supporting the prosecution during the trial.Additional sessions judge Surekha Rajaram Patil of Baramati on Wednesday sentenced fisherman Gorakh Aba Kale (51) and his son Akshay Gorakh Kale alias Akash (25) to life imprisonment for murdering Japan Kisan Chavan.According to the prosecution, Chavan, who sometimes stayed with his wife and in-laws in Bhigwan, was involved in a dispute with the accused over his stay at Khorawadi village, under the jurisdiction of Daund police station. He was allegedly murdered by his maternal uncle and maternal cousin in front of a minor witness on Jan 15, 2021, in Daund.On the day of the incident, when voting for the gram panchayat election was underway in Khorawadi, Aadesh (name changed), then 13 and a Class IV student, went to the house of his sister Anjali, who was married to Akshay. According to his testimony, around 3pm, a quarrel broke out between Chavan and the two accused behind the house of Chavan’s mother, Ladki Chavan.Aadesh told the court that Akshay caught hold of Chavan’s legs, lifted him and slammed him to the ground, while Kale struck him on the head with an iron rod. Aadesh further testified that Akshay threatened to kill his sister if he disclosed what he had witnessed.While considering the defence’s challenge to Aadesh’s testimony, the court referred to a Supreme Court observation that “the evidence of a child witness for all purposes is deemed to be on the same footing as any other witness as long as the child is found to be competent to testify”.Chavan’s mother, Ladki, who was the FIR informant, did not fully support the prosecution during the trial. The court observed that “the version of a hostile witness cannot be discarded or ignored in total” and that the portion that is “credible, trustworthy and reliable can be taken into consideration while appreciating evidence”.The medical and forensic evidence corroborated the child’s account.Chavan’s postmortem showed multiple injuries, including intracranial bleeding, and the doctor said the injuries could have been caused by the iron rod produced before the court. The rod was subsequently recovered from a bush following Kale’s disclosure and was found to have blood stains.The court held that Aadesh’s evidence was trustworthy and reliable and, along with the medical, forensic and other evidence, proved the prosecution’s case against both accused.
