Three years after a man was arrested for murdering his colleague owing to a petty quarrel over washing dishes on board a fishing boat at Uttan near Bhayandar 2019, the 31-year-old khalasi (helper) Ramaswami Bhuvneshwar Shriwas has been convicted for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
District sessions judge (Thane) Abhay Mantri pronounced the accused guilty on 20 September 2019 under sections 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the IPC and sentenced him to eight years rigorous imprisonment additionally imposing a fine of Rs 12,000.
The accused was acquitted for the offences punishable under section 302 (murder) of IPC. According to the police, the deceased Santuram Hariram (34) had mysteriously disappeared from Pralaykar, a private boat which was anchored at the jetty on the coastline in Chowk village after its fishing voyage in September 2019.
The boat owner, identified as Lenson Katwar, filed a missing person report at the Uttan coastal police station, following which a team led by API Satish Nikam began an investigation and a search operation was launched. 24 hours later, the police recovered Santuram's body floating in the sea with visible injury marks on his head.
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While inspecting the boat, the team had spotted blood stains on a wooden plank near the driver’s cabin which suggested a murderous assault had taken place, following which two other helpers on board were detained for questioning.
Revealing the sequence of events, the duo had stated that Santuram and Shriwas often fought over a petty issue, however, the war of words over cleaning the dishes had taken a violent turn on the fateful day when Shriwas attacked Santuram with an iron rod and pushed him into water. Twelve witnesses were examined by the prosecution during the trial.
