Man gets life term for killing minor stepson

A sessions court on Tuesday awarded life imprisonment to a catering professional for killing his four-year-old stepson by drowning him in a water tub in a fit of rage in 2017.

The accused, Vikas Jaiswal, a resident of Tulinj town in Palghar district of Maharashtra, was convicted by Sessions Judge S R Vadali.

The judge pronounced the 26-year-old guilty under IPC sections related to murder, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation, and sentenced him to life in prison.

The court held that the prosecution, led by Additional Public Prosecutor Jaiprakash Patil, has proved all the charges against the accused.

The victim's mother, Pooja Kothari, 24, had married Jaiswal in 2015 after separating from her husband, the prosecution said. Kothari had two other kids besides the deceased.

On November 10, 2017, Jaiswal forcibly drowned his stepson in a water tub in the bathroom, the prosecution said.

The accused was annoyed with the child's habit of frequently going to a neighbour's house and killed him in a fit a rage, it said.

The victim's mother was not at home when the incident took place.

During the trial, the deceased child's mother, the complainant in the case, turned hostile, according to Patil.

The court relied on circumstantial evidence that a boy with a height of around 3 feet cannot get drowned in a tub of 2 feet depth, he said.

Hence, it was clear he had been forcibly drowned in the water tub by the accused, the court said, according to Patil.