HC upholds conviction and life term of youth for double murder

The Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction and life sentence awarded to a 21-year-old youth for murdering his stepmother and her minor son over a personal grudge against them.
A division bench of justices P V Hardas and A S Gadkari while upholding the conviction of Amit Vitkar for the murder of Kajal and her six-year-old son Akshay observed that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt against the accused.
According to the prosecution, the convict Amit had developed a grudge against the victims soon after his father abandoned his mother to marry Kajal.
On April 16, 2003, Amit, along with his juvenile friend, visited Kajal at their house in Pune when his father was not there and assaulted Kajal with a knife.

Amit then took Akshay with him and killed him the next day.
The prosecution had relied on last seen theory while building their case against the two accused.
"The circumstances so proved by the prosecution form a complete chain which excludes every hypothesis of innocence of the accused and unerringly points to the guilt of the accused. Apart from him (Amit) no one else could have committed the said crime," the bench said.
In 2005, a sessions court in Pune had convicted and sentenced both Amit and his friend to life imprisonment. However, another bench of the high court had earlier held that since the other accused was juvenile he be released considering three years he has spent in jail as the sentence served.