Bombay HC upholds life sentence for man accused of triple murder based on circumstantial evidence

By LE Desk

Mumbai, May 5: The Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction of a man charged with murdering three women in 2015 on the basis of circumstantial evidence. He has been given a life sentence.

The bench of Justice Sadhana S Jadhav and Justice N R Borkar said, “Witnesses may lie but circumstances speak for themselves,” India Today reported.

The bench was of the view that the cumulative effect of the circumstantial evidence negates the innocence of the accused in the case at hand. They concluded that the accused is the only perpetrator of the crime.

The complainant, a female resident of Pen in Raigad district of Maharashtra, had called up her mother who lived with her two younger sisters on February 12, 2015. However, her mother’s phone was switched off. She called up one of her younger sisters who said that their mother had gone to live with her brother a few days ago. The daughter called up all her relatives but was not able to trace her mother. She then called her sister again only to find that even her phone was switched off.

She learnt from her cousin that her younger sister had had a love affair with the accused Ashok Dhavale who was residing with his uncle Dhondiba in a village called Maldev. The villagers had opposed the love affair and a consequent quarrel with the villagers resulted in him leaving Maldev.

More than a month later, on March 27, the complainant received a phone call from her mother’s cell phone. An unknown person on the line informed her that her mother was in critical condition and her sister was on oxygen support. He told her that he would call again after half an hour but she received no call.

She had no idea where her mother was hospitalized or from where she had received the call. On April 1, she received another call from the same person. He asked her to come alone to a place if she wanted to meet her mother. Both these times, the woman did not get to speak to her mother.

The woman’s in-laws advised her to register a missing complaint with the Pen police. A fortnight later, a case was registered. On April 19, Dhavale was arrested as the woman expressed her apprehensions about him.

During investigation, the police found the mother’s phone on him. The police also tracked down three bodies, one of the mother and two of the sisters. Additionally, they found love letters exchanged between Dhavale and one of the sisters.

According to India Today, the prosecution told the court that Dhavale was in love with one of the sisters Manisha. Since the villagers did not approve of it and turned him out, he got agitated and hatched a plan to eliminate the family.

Accordingly, he called the three women to Raghuvir Ghat, killed them and threw the dead bodies in the valley. He even attempted to call the married daughter, the complainant in the case.

Forensic experts told the court that the three bodies were in an advanced stage of decomposition and hence, the cause of death could not be determined. However, all three were killed at the same time, the experts said.

The police told the court that the mother and two daughters went missing after visiting a village called Malshed on February 9, 2015.

Dhavale was convicted by Alibaug Sessions Court. He then approached the high court with the contention that the whole case against him rested on suspicion. He said there was no proof and that certain procedural lapses by the police had cast a reasonable doubt over the prosecution’s case.

From the evidence before it, the court concluded that the calls were made by Dhavale himself. The court also said that the discovery of the fact that the missing persons had died and the location of the decomposed bodies came from Dhavale. A few belongings of the accused were found at the crime scene.

There was no evidence to show that the police could have found the location of the bodies before Dhavale gave them that information.

The court said that “immaterial and irrelevant lacunae in investigation would not entitle an accused to benefit of doubt. A misplaced leniency would result in miscarriage of justice, especially in cases like the present one where a mother and daughter have died a homicidal death at the hands of the accused.”

Dismissing Dhavale’s appeal, the court directed the appellant to surrender before the Sessions Court within eight weeks if out on bail or parole.

https://www.indiatoday.in/cities/mumbai/story/bombay-high-court-life-sentence-triple-murder-circumstantial-evidence-1798203-2021-05-03