Bombay high court relief for two convicted of murder, sodomy

Two men who were sentenced to death last year by a trial court for the murder of a minor and sodomy of his corpse got reprieve from the Bombay high court on Thursday.

Rajesh Sakhre, 33, and Dinesh Yadao, 29, had allegedly committed the crime 12 years ago.

However, the high court drew the inference that the sodomy charge was not proved and reduced Sakhre’s punishment to life-imprisonment. Yadao has been acquitted of all charges and released from prison.

On December 25, 1998, both the accused, according to the prosecution, had kidnapped Jivan (name changed) on a two-wheeler and taken him to Dighori Naka in Nagpur. The allegedly hit him on his head and killed him and thereafter sodomised him. They were also accused of seeking money from the boy’s family.

The trial court had examined eight witnesses including the boy’s mother and his uncle. It had held that the crime was of a heinous nature and handed out the maximum punishment - the death sentence - to both the accused.

While hearing the confirmation case along with the appeals filed by both the accused, the Nagpur bench of the high court, however, did not completely concur with the findings of the trial court. The high court held that the involvement of Sakhre was proved by the prosecution as he was last seen with the deceased child and he led the police to the site where Jivan was buried. “The medical evidence does not conclusively prove the act of sodomy,” the court held and acquitted him of the charge.

The high court held Sakhre guilty of murder but commuting his sentence from death to life, it observed, “Bare fact of absence of clothes on the corpse and injury to the anus ipso facto will not convert it to be a case of rarest of rare category.”

The court held that the prosecution had brought no evidence forward to show that Yadao was present at the spot where Jivan was killed and hence acquitted him of all charges.