High court relief for 77-year-old

The Bombay high court has spared a 77-year-old man from serving six month rigorous imprisonment, twelve years after he was sentenced for stabbing his daughter’s ex-lover for breaking her marriage which was finalised.

More’s lawyer said his conviction was not being challenged but the sentence awarded is “rather harsh” and needs to be suitably modified. He said his client is 77 now and “after such long passage of time, the sentence is likely to cause more injury to him”.

The Justice noted that First Information Report stated that More was annoyed because his daughter’s marriage was broken due the love affair and he reliably learnt that Narayan was instrumental in breaking it. Also, that it appeared that Narayan had put spokes in the “settled marriage” and therefore the proposal fizzled out. “Here is a case in which the heart of the father was perturbed when his daughter was likely face problems in her matrimonial life,” wrote the judge. The judge added that More had no personal enmity towards Narayan and no other tangible reason to mount the assault.  “His daughter’s marriage had been settled and yet, the love affair was not being given a decent burial. It was but natural for the appellant (More) to be annoyed due to Narayan’s conduct,” added the Justice.

He added that given the fact that time has passed, it would improper to maintain the sentence as it is. “The appellant (More) is quite aged person and deserves due sympathy”, the judge concluded, reducing the sentence to the period More spent as undertrial.