Judge to deliver ruling on Shewani Devi

Judge Justice Riyaaz Hamza will deliver his ruling on the no case to answer application for the Shahista Shewani Devi case today.

Devi is charged with a count each of attempted murder and criminal intimidation.

She is alleged to have attempted to murder her fouryear-old son Divyan and is also alleged to have threatened to kill her mother-inlaw.

The alleged offence occurred on February 2, last year.

Defence counsel Abhay Singh had filed a no-case-to-answer application on Tuesday after prosecution closed the case.

State counsel Saif Shah said that the prosecution’s view was that they have touched on the elements of the offence and that was why there was a case to answer. Justice Hamza asked the prosecution if by putting ‘use of knife’ in the charge sheet and not proving it, it will make the charge of criminal intimidation a defective count.

The defence is of the view that the offence is in the preparatory stages. However the state’s view is that it’s not in the preparatory stage but it is more than that because when Devi ripped the bed sheet that was the preparatory stage.

But when she hung the bed sheet to the rafter and was pulling Divyan to allegedly hang him that was more than preparatory and that is when the mother-in-law, Madhur Lata had intervened to save the child, the state said.

The state is represented by Mr Shah and Zenith Zunaid.