71-year-old man gets 10 years in jail for killing son

A 71-year-old man, accused of killing his own son during a druken quarrel, was sentenced to ten years' rigorous imprisonment by a court here on Tuesday.

District judge G P Shirsat found the accused, Rajesh Mahalam Soni, guilty under IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on him.

Additional Public Prosecutor Rekha Hiwrale said that Rajesh and his son Ravishankar (38) jointly owned a chawl (a building containing low-cost tenements) in Patli Pada here.

Ravishankar transferred some rooms in his wife's name, which led to bad blood between him and his father. During a quarrel on September 30, 2016, Rajesh attacked his son with a knife, the prosecutor said.

Ravishankar died at a hospital and his father was arrested.

The court did not hold Rajesh guilty of murder but convicted him of the lesser charge of culpable homicide, noting that both were drunk at the time of the incident, and it was not proven that the accused had the intention to kill his own son.