Accused of killing wife’s ‘illegitimate’ boy, man acquitted due to want of evidences
A 68-year-old man was acquitted on Tuesday by a sessions court in the 1986 killing of an infant who was born out of his wife’s extramarital affair. The court said there was insufficient evidence as witnesses were not available in more than three-decade-old case.The crime had come to fore after it took place on September 7, 1986, after the Azad Maidan police was alerted by unknown people that the infant was no longer seen with the couple. Ramachandra Sharma worked as a liftman and lived in Queens Chamber near Churchgate. His wife Chandravati lived in his village in UP, and had recently joined him in Mumbai back then. As per the police, their probe had revealed that Ramachandra found out about the ‘illegitimate’ infant of his wife, and killed the male child by stangulating him. He had then concealed the body in a plastic bag and disposed of it in a Kalanagar creek.The wife was also an accused in the case as she had allegedly conspired with Ramachandra to get rid of the baby. However, the woman died pending trial, while her husband had stopped attending court as he was out on bail. In 2019, the court had issued a non-bailable warrant against him and subsequently he was arrested. Since then, he has been lodged in Arthur Road prison.
The accused Ramachandra’s brother was an eye-witness in the case. As per his police statement, the accused had asked him to get his taxi near Queens Chamber, after which Ramachandra dumped the body into a creek. The brother had said he was unaware what was in the plastic bag until the accused informed him after throwing it. The prosecution had filed an application before the court, stating that it wanted to close the long-pending case as none of the witnesses were available despite several attempts. It had stated that no purpose would be served by keeping the case pending as there is no possibility of securing the presence of witnesses. Additional sessions judge SP Naik-Nimbalkar reasoned that considering the entire scenario due to non-availability of witnesses, the prosecution’s evidence falls too short to bring home the guilt of the accused.