Man accused of neigbour’s murder let off by HC for lack of evidence

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday discharged an accused in a murder case for lack of evidence directly linking him to the murder or the conspiracy to kill.

The Vasai resident, Vijay Lulla, and 6 other persons were being tried for the murder of their neighbour, Multanmal Jain, over disputes regarding the housing society. The informant of the alleged homicide, Sharda Patel, a resident of the same building as Jain, had told police that the seven accused had barged into the flat of the deceased on the evening of 29 March 2024 and hit him with a wooden stick, which eventually led to Jain’s death.

According to Patel, on the previous day - 28 March - Jain allegedly had an argument with Kashmira Mandaliya, the tenant of the flat above his. A visitor to Mandaliya’s flat had allegedly washed her face on the balcony and some of the water had trickled down to Jain’s balcony below, and a fuming Jain had rushed to Mandaliya’s flat and picked up a quarrel.

Patel alleged that at around 8pm on 29 March, the accused barged into Jain’s flat and first verbally abused him for the quarrel that took place on the previous evening and later hit him fatally with a stick.

After going through the statements of many witnesses, the high court concluded that Vijay Lulla was not present at the spot where the assault took place. The court noted that Vijay had only visited Mandaliya’s house in the afternoon of the incident and had mentioned that Jain had become a nuisance for the housing society.

The court also observed that there was no evidence even linking Vijay to any conspiracy to murder the victim. “The only material placed before the court is the vague and sweeping statement of Ms. Kashmira Mandilya about the accused’s presence in her flat on the date of incident and nothing more,” the court said.

In conclusion, justice Jadhav said, “Once it is clear that there was no direct or indirect role of accused no 6 (Vijay Lulla) to the incident in question, nor any evidence of his presence, nor any role attributable to him in any conspiracy hatched to eliminate the deceased, the applicant (Lulla) cannot be asked to face trial”, and discharged Lulla from the trial.