Man gets life term for killing son for refusing to call stepmother ‘ammi’

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Monday sentenced a 49-year-old Dongri resident to life imprisonment for stabbing his son to death on August 24, 2018, for refusing to call his stepmother ‘ammi’.
The complaint was filed by Parveen Shaikh, biological mother of the victim, Imran Shaikh, and the first wife of the accused, Salim Shaikh. She had rushed to the nearby police station to get help after the fight between the father and son escalated. But by the time police reached the spot, the boy was found covered in blood and was, subsequently, declared dead at the civil hospital.
Additional public prosecutor Ajit Chavan submitted that the death was homicidal, which could be proved by the post-mortem report. The defence submitted that the death was suicidal, and the boy had inflicted the injuries upon himself under the influence of drugs.
Salim’s advocate Anjali Patil submitted that prosecution failed to prove guilt of the accused since they failed to examine any eyewitness. Relying on the deposition made by the mother of the deceased, the defence argued that she said that Imran was under the influence of drugs and injured himself using scissors.
Parveena Shaikh, the mother of the deceased, during cross-examination said that Imran hit himself with scissors and the blood subsequently fell on Salim’s shirt. She said that Imran was under the influence of drugs on the day of the incident, and was damaging household articles, due to which his father got into a quarrel with him. Referring to the contrary statements made in her deposition, the court observed that she is stuck in an emotional dilemma as “on one hand she has already lost her child and on other hand her husband is in danger of getting punished for committing murder of their son.”
The court held that the prosecution’s recovery of scissors from the accused is strong evidence, adding, “The fact of use of scissor of offence by accused is confirmed by the fact of recovery of scissor at the instance of accused himself.”
Stating that the prosecution has brought on record all possible evidence, the sessions judge SD Tawshikar said, “Accused, though was the father of the deceased, showed no sympathy to him. After assault, he seems to have run away from the spot. Record reveals that accused was neither present on the spot after the incident nor visited the hospital. This unnatural conduct of the accused also needs to be taken note of. Hence, in such situation whatever evidence could come on record, to my mind, is sufficient to connect accused with the alleged offence.”