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In 2015, Dwarkabai and her brother quarrelled after he had sown cotton on the disputed land pending before the court. Later, she called her husband and son to the spot, who arrived with deadly weapons and killed the four of them
The Bombay High Court has recently commuted the death sentence of a man and his parents who the trial court convicted of killing four members of the maternal family over a land dispute.
The division bench of the high court, comprising Justice Vinay Joshi and Justice Abhay Matri, was hearing the appeal filed by the family against the judgment of the Sessions Court.
Haribhau Telgote, his wife Dwarkabai Telgote, and their son Shyam Telgote had a dispute with the maternal family over 29 acres of ancestral land. They were booked for murdering one Dhanraj Charhate, his two sons, and his brother.
In 2015, Dwarkabai and her brother quarrelled after he had sown cotton on the disputed land pending before the court. Later, she called her husband and son to the spot, who arrived with deadly weapons and killed the four of them.
The high court in its order noted that the trial court quoted Mahabharata while awarding death sentence which was unwarranted.
“More interestingly the reasoning assigned by the trial Court for awarding capital punishment [paragraph nos.341 to 354] are quite strange. The trial Court has quoted a verse from Mahabharata, which we feel to be an unwarranted exercise,” the judgement reads.
The bench also noted that, “More interestingly in paragraph no.344 of the decision, the trial Court has reproduced some crime data regarding State of Maharashtra of last 10 years. It has been stated that during last 10 years, 23,222 offence of murder have occurred in the State. Incidents of 4 murder in a single occurrence in last 10 years are 19 in number. On the basis of said statistical data, it has been expressed that such incident of committing 4 murders in a single incident are rare and therefore, falls in the category of rarest of rare case. According to us, the said approach of the trial Court is erroneous, as on the basis of some statistical data, without returning to the facts of this case, the category cannot be decided. In criminal trial each case has its own feature and distinctions,” the judgement states.
The bench found that it was not the rarest of rare cases. Therefore, the bench proceeded to commute the death sentence of Haribhau and Shyam and awarded them life imprisonment. The bench also proceeded to acquit Dwarkabai.
Case title: State of Maharashtra vs Haribhau Telgote & Ors
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