By IANS
Mumbai : The Bombay High Court Friday confirmed a lower court’s award of the death sentence of a 36-year-old man found guilty of murdering his uncle in 2006.
A division bench of Justice S. Radhakrishnan and Justice Roshan Dalvi upheld the Satara sessions court verdict on accused Dnyaneshwar Haribhau Kulal.
In September 2004, Kulal beheaded his uncle Dhondiram, 65, with a chopper, suspecting him of practicing black magic on his family.
Dhondiram’s son had filed a missing complaint Sep 3, when his father did not return from the field.
The same day, a head-less body was recovered from a nearby field, which was identified as Dhondiram from his clothes and other belongings.
The victim’s son suspected his cousin Kulal’s involvement in the crime as he was often at loggerheads with the uncle.
Kulal was arrested soon afterwards. Satara court judge S.B. Panse’s ruling came in November 2006.
Public prosecutor A.R. Patil told IANS, “The testimony of the prime witness, a shepherd who told the court that Kulal had displayed his uncle’s head after killing him, clinched the issue.”
The prosecution had sought confirmation of the death sentence arguing that it was “a gruesome murder” and was of the “rarest of rare” kind.