Wednesday, January 9, 2019

HC confirms conviction based on 4-year-old’s eyewitness account

JANUARY 09, 2019 00:00 IST



Rohitashwa had seen his mother being killed byhis father and grandmother

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday confirmed conviction and imposition of life sentence on a 62-year-old woman and her 45-year-old son by a court in Mangaluru, based on the evidence of a four-year-old boy, who had seen his mother being killed in front of him by his father and grandmother in 2011.

A Division Bench comprising Justice K.N. Phaneendra and Justice B.A. Patil passed the order while dismissing the appeals filed by Parvathi and her son Ravish, both residents of Vittala Kasba villege, Bantwal taluk, Dakshina Kannada district. The 1st Additional District and Sessions court, Mangaluru, had on August 12, 2016, convicted them based on the eye witness evidence given by Rohitashwa, who was nine years old and studying in fourth standard when he gave his statement before the court as the sole eyewitness of the murder of his mother, Saraswathi.

The Bantwal police had video graphed the recording of statements of various persons and this included Rohitashwa’s narration to the police about what his father and grandmother did to his mother in their home.

Rohitashwa, besides stating before the trial court that it was his father and grandmother who had killed his mother using a sickle, had also faced counter questions put forward by the defence lawyers during the cross-examination.

The trial court had also recorded the statement of other witnesses who had narrated what the four-year-old boy had told them afterSaraswathi’s death. The High Court accepted the evidence given by Rohitashwa as recorded by the trial court.

She was murdered using a sickle at around 8 a.m. on February 17, 2011, and a case was registeredon a complaint filed by Saraswathi’s father. According to the prosecution, Ravish and Parvathi, daily wage workers, frequently quarrelled with Saraswathi over property matters and other personal issues.

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