HC upholds life sentence to man for murder

The Bombay High Court has upheld the life sentence awarded to a man for murdering his friend in 2004 at Nashik after a quarrel over watching movies.
A division bench of justices V K Tahilramani and B P Colabawalla was hearing an appeal filed by Yashwant Thakare, who was in January 2008 convicted for murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in Nashik.
According to the prosecution, on November 26, 2004 Yashwant, the victim Kantilal Thakare and several others from their village in Nashik district were sitting together after a meal together in the night.
The villagers decided to pool in money and buy a VCD player that will enable them to see movies in their village itself instead of travelling to the adjacent village to watch movies. During the said discussion, the deceased jokingly said the accused should not be allowed to see movies and no money should be taken from him to buy the VCD player.

A quarrel ensued between Kantilal and Yashwant over this and Yashwant slapped the victim and went to his house. Yashwant then returned with an iron pipe and assaulted Kantilal. Kantilal sustained head injuries and later died.
Yashwant's advocate argued that even if it is accepted that the accused assaulted the victim with an iron pipe the case does not fall under the purview of section 302 of IPC for murder as the assault was not pre-planned and there was no intention to cause death. According to the defence lawyer, the accused should be tried under section 304 (II) of IPC for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The court, however, refused to accept this contention and observed that the incident of assault did not occur in the heat of the moment.
"The evidence does not suggest that there was a sudden quarrel between the accused and the deceased. When the quarrel took place the accused slapped the deceased. Thereafter, the accused went to his house, procured an iron pipe and returned. He then assaulted the deceased with the iron pipe due to which Kantilal sustained severe head injuries which ultimately led to his death," the bench said.
The court held that the evidence adduced by the prosecution clearly points to the guilt of the accused and the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt. "The conviction and sentence of the appellant (Yashwant) under section 302 of IPC is maintained, and the appeal is dismissed," the court held.