Hyderabad: A seven-year-old boy withstood tough cross-examination by defence counsels appearing for the four accused, now convicted, for murdering his mother in a case dating back to 2018. The four were convicted to rigorous imprisonment for life.
The boy, who was six years old during the incident, stood his ground through the trial while giving his account of the incident in court, a year after the murder took place. The judgment was given on Friday, convicting four persons.
The case pertains to the murder of Pinki, a Bihar native, who had eloped with her lover from Bihar and was staying in Hyderabad, leaving behind her husband. The lover’s family was unhappy about having to feed Pinki and her son.
Upon learning that Pinki was pregnant, they murdered her, chopped her body, packed the parts in gunny bags and threw them into a garbage dump near Botanical Garden in Gachibowli.
During the examination in the court, defence counsels posed tough questions to the boy for hours, but he answered them without panicking, explaining every minute detail from the time he could not meet his mother to how the accused misled him, saying that she admitted in a hospital. He recollected how they got him snacks and chocolates to calm him when he asked about his mother.
The boy recalled seeing gunny bags with bloodstains in their flat. Upon questioning the family, he was told that his mother’s clothes were packed in them.
Special public prosecutor Devulapalli Upender told Deccan Chronicle that the convicts claimed that they were falsely implicated by the police. “They could not explain to the court why her son was in their custody,” he said.
The prosecution also cited nine Supreme Court judgments to support their submissions and counter the defence’s contentions.
The court convicted Pinki’s partner Vikas Kashyap, his friend Amarkanth Jhah and Jhah’s parents Anil Jhah and Mamatha Jhah in the case.
The VI Additional District Sessions Court for Cyberabad at Kukatpally, which delivered the verdict, said that with the murder, the deceased’s family and her child had to undergo pain and agony and her child was left without her love and care.
The court called for payment of compensation by the convicts and also directed the District Legal Services Authority to provide appropriate compensation to Pinki’s dependents.
