HC acquits man accused of patricide, sets aside life sentence

Finding weak evidence against a man sentenced to life imprisonment on charge of killing his father, the Bombay High Court has acquitted him of murder charges and ordered his release from Kolhapur central prison.
"In our opinion, the prosecution has not proved that the appellant, Subhash Jadhav, had caused death of his father Sukhdeo with a stone," observed judges V K Tahilramani and P D Kode recently.
According to prosecution, on April 26, 2004, Subhash, in an inebriated state, had picked up a quarrel with his father Sukhdev and brother Gopal over some trivial issue. However, he was pacified by his family after which he went away. Gopal slept in the house while his father went to sleep outside in the courtyard.

On the same night, Gopal got a call from his neighbour asking him to come out of the house. When he stepped out, he saw his father lying in a pool of blood with facial injuries. He also saw his brother Subhash standing at the end of the chawl (house). An injured Sukhdev was taken to hospital where he died four days later.
Subhash was arrested on the basis of a complaint lodged by his brother Gopal. He was convicted by the sessions court in Mumbai on September 14, 2005. Being aggrieved, Subhash filed an appeal in the High Court saying he was falsely implicated in the crime.

His lawyer Arfan Sait submitted that Gopal's evidence shows that he had not seen the appellant killing his father. He merely suspected that his brother might have killed Sukhdev with the stone as he saw the appellant standing at the end of the chawl and found a stone lying near the deceased.
In the absence of evidence, Subhash cannot be found guilty of killing father, the lawyer argued.