Labourer gets lifer for child’s murder

The accused went away but returned the next morning and found the couple’s two children – Kanta and his brother, Ananta — playing in the front yard. He asked the two brothers to come with him to the jungle on the pretext of hunting birds. While Ananta refused, Kanta went along despite his mother’s reluctance.

About half-an-hourlater, Laxmi saw Gurya return alone from the jungle. His clothes were stained with blood and he appeared to be in a great hurry to get home. When Laxmi asked him about her son, he snapped at her, telling her not to ask about Kanta and threatened to slap her.

Laxmi then rushed to the jungle in search of her son. She found him behind a shrub, in a pool of blood. His skull was smashed and three blood-stained stones lay nearby, the prosecution informed the court. A complaint was lodged with the Wada police. Gurya, who was absconding, was arrested a month later.

In his judgment, Justice Bhargande observed that even if the evidence of prosecution on record was not sufficient to prove motive against the accused, the conviction of the accused for having committed murder could still be sustained by relying on the oral testimony of prosecution witnesses Laxmibai and Ananta which was “sufficient to bring home guilt to accused beyond reasonable doubt”.