Bombay HC upholds child’s testimony against dad

The Bombay High Court recently upheld the life imprisonment sentence of 34-year-old Sheikh Rashid who murdered his wife by setting her on fire in 1997. The court concluded that the testimony of Sheikh’s minor son’s against him (Sheikh) was correct and served as the basis of the conviction.

Division bench of Justice PV Hardas and SB Deshmukh said “We do not find traces of tutoring or influence over this (minor son) witness. We do not find anything in the cross examination of this witness to discredit his evidence either.”

In 2005, the trial court convicted Sheikh on the basis of the testimony of 10-year-old Irshad who was one of the key eyewitnesses to his mother’s murder. However, in the appeal, the father had raised a defense that the trial court had erred by accepting a minor’s testimony and cited several Supreme Court and high court judgments claiming the testimony should be discarded.

As per the prosecution’s case, Sheikh and Rehana got married in 1994 and had two sons. The couple fought frequently and Rehana had even lodged a complaint of harassment against Sheikh with the police. On the day of the incident, Rehana and Sheikh had a fight and Sheikh poured kerosene on her, set her on fire and left the house.

Rehana’s brother-in-law lodged a complaint with the police that she died due to burn injuries. Initially, a case of suicide was lodged but after Rehana’s son’s statement, a murder case was lodged against Sheikh.