12-yr-old in court for his ‘murder’ trial

A body of a child was found near a railway track outside this town on March 20 while Gabbar had been missing for several days but no complaint had been lodged. The police had circulated the body’s photographs but no one identified it till the second week of July.

“I had slept on the train and found myself in Jalgaon when I woke up,’’ Gabbar said, outside the court room, not sure why was he brought there. He spent four months in Jalgaon and about two months in a correctional institution in Bhopal.

Two days ago, Gabbar’s elder brother Kallu alias Tufan and uncle Punam through their advocate moved an application in the chief judicial magistrate’s court saying the couple be discharged because their son they had been accused of killing was alive. The CJM committed the matter to the Sessions Court while rejecting the discharge application.

The couple was picked up by the police from their house in Gwaltoli in the town, and jailed after they allegedly confessed to killing their son. On Saturday, their advocate R.S. Thakur alleged that the couple had given the confession under duress.

Stunned by the developments, the police had made adequate arrangements to ensure that the couple and their son did not come in contact with each other in the court premises.

A government pleader while opposing the bail plea maintained that Gabbar was dead because the body had been identified by his neighbours from the photograph shown to them. He cast doubts on existence of Kallu alias Tufan saying no one by that name existed. “The identity of the person who produced Gabbar itself was suspect,” he argued.

In the Yadav’s neighbourhood every one is certain that Gabbar was alive. When he was brought there on Friday they had hugged him and got themselves photographed with him. “We know him since he was born, how will we make a mistake,’’ asked Raju Lutare, a neighbour.

Ramesh had told the neighbours that Gabbar was in some jail. “Let the police claim whatever, we know for sure that the boy is Gabbar,’’ Brajmohan Bamrele, another neighbour said. Gabbar identified his friends by their names and his schoolmates also identified him on Friday.

Inspector Bhupendrasingh Sengar, who investigated the matter till his transfer on June 8, told The Indian Express that the body had not been identified despite making efforts for months. “I had circulated more than 1,000 pamphlets but no one identified the body,’’ said Sengar and sounded surprised that within a month of his transfer the matter had been solved.

Inspector D.S. Raghuvanshi, who succeeded Sengar, however, claimed that the parents had confessed to the murder. Prosecution argued that a belt and a stick used by Gabbar was recovered from the spot the parents showed.