High Court upholds life term for travel agency owner's killers

The Bombay high court has upheld the life imprisonment of the two accused for killing 72-year-old Rajaram Patil in 2002. Patil was the owner of Raja Rani Travels Private Limited. A division bench of justice VK Tahilramani and justice Sadhna Jadhav has upheld the life sentence of Vinod Fernandes and Salim Hussein who were 22 and 23 years of age respectively at the time of the offence.

According to the prosecution, both the accused, who were employees of the deceased, were fired as they had misappropriated official funds.

The two accused along with two others, including a juvenile, entered Patil’s house in Mahim on September 3, 2002. They stole Rs28,000 and assaulted Patil with a kitchen knife. Patil’s sons found him dead. A man had seen the four accused come out of Patil’s apartment with blood stains on their clothes.

Pradeep Hingorani, additional public prosecutor, said, “Based on the witness’s description, the police nabbed two accused from Shirdi and the others from Mumbai. The independent witness also supported the prosecution in the court which helped secure the conviction.”

One of the accused, Deepak Gawde, died during the trial, while the juvenile was transferred to juvenile justice board.

The sessions court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment. The two accused moved the Bombay high court challenging the conviction.

The appeal stated that the trial court had wrongly held the accused guilty. However, the HC dismissed the appeal.

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