Mumbai: A special court, handling cases related to atrocities on women, on Thursday, convicted four men of murdering Keenan Santos and Reuben Fernandez in Amboli in 2011 and sentenced all the convicts to imprisonment for life for the remainder of their lives.
Special judge Vrushali Joshi held Jitendar Rana, Sunil Both, Satish Durgaj and Deepak Piswal guilty of killing the two youths on the intervening night of October 20, 2011.
Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam did not ask for death penalty as the charge of conspiracy was not proved against the accused and there was one stabbing wound.
The prosecution’s case was that on the day of incident seven friends had gone to Amboli Kitchen and Bar for dinner and to watch a cricket match. The group had three girls, and on exiting the restaurant, they encountered a group of drunk men standing outside who started passing lewd comments at the girls.
When the boys in the group objected to the eve-teasing, a quarrel ensued. It soon turned into a violent fight, resulting in the death of Santos and Fernandez.
“There are five eyewitnesses. Of them, three were friends of the deceased, the security guard and a paanwala,” said the judge. She added that the statements of the last two witnesses, who went to the police station on their own, were recorded a day after the incident, while describing what she had considered before giving the verdict.
Speaking about the testimony of the security guard and the paanwala, the judge observed that their evidence was natural. She said that both of them narrated what they had seen and had not added anything on their own. The judge said the guard was watching the incident standing at the door of the restaurant.
“If he wanted to falsely implicate the accused, then he would have narrated the whole incident of molestation by mentioning the act of touching the victims inappropriately. But, from a distance he saw the accused smoking and passing filthy comments at the girls,” the judge said.
