Court upholds life sentence for two over killing neighbour

The duo had killed their neighbour in 2010 over allegations of stealing aluminium sheets

The Bombay High Court (HC) has upheld the life sentence of two persons who killed their neighbour in November 2010 following an argument over allegations of stealing aluminium sheets.

Dismissing the appeals filed by Rashid Shaikh and Naushad Shaikh, the court observed that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

On November 30, 2012, the sessions court at Sewree had convicted Rashid and Naushad on charges of murdering their neighbour Maqbool and sentenced them to life imprisonment and had imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 each. The duo had approached the HC challenging this verdict.

According to the prosecution, on November 20, 2010, Maqbool’s wife Shamshad and his sister Nasreenbanu went to Rashid’s house to inquire about the missing aluminium sheets which they had kept outside their house. They alleged that Rashid took them.

That night, at around 11 pm, Rashid went to Maqbool’s house with an accomplice and allegedly attacked him with a chopper.

Rashid’s advocate, Yug Choudhary, argued that he was at work at the time the alleged incident took place. Taking the plea of alibi, Choudhary showed the statement of one Anand Sharma. According to Rashid, he was assigned to Hotel Taj Mahal on the date of incident.

A division bench of justices SS Shinde and VG Bisht, observed that “it is settled law that while raising a plea of ‘alibi’ the burden squarely lies upon the accused person to establish the plea by leading cogent and convincing evidence”.

Dismissing his alibi plea, the HC said, “Considering the nature of evidence of ‘alibi’ led by the appellant (Rashid) against the positive evidence of the prosecution including the evidence of chemical analyser’s report, we hold that the appellant has miserably failed to discharge his burden with precision qua his plea of ‘alibi’.”