Mumbai: No relief for spurned youth who stabbed girl

MUMBAI: Five years after a youth stabbed a college going girl in broad daylight in Powai for refusing his overtures, the Bombay high court upheld his conviction for attempt to murder. Justice Sadhna Jadhav dismissed the appeal filed by Jarnail Sardar (28) challenging his four year prison term.

"The conviction deserves to be upheld," said the judge. Sardar had accosted the girl, who was on her way to college, outside Lake Gate Homes in Powai. According to the complaint, the yout had professed his love and threatened her to elope with him. She however refused. On the fateful day, he stabbed her with scissiors on the stomach before fleeing. The girl managed to call her friends who took her to the hospital. Subsequently, the police lodged an FIR and arrested the accused based on the girl's statement. A sessions court in 2014 sentenced Sardar to four years in jail.

In the high court, Sardar's legal aid appointed lawyer said that no case of attempt to murder was made out. The lawyer said that the girl had suffered simple injuries and had barely spent six days in hospital. The defense also pointed to some contradictory statements as well as evidence. They also contended that the prosecution had fabricated a text message sent to the girl’s phone threatening to kill her.

The court disagreed that the contradictions were fatal to the case. As far as the author of the injury is concerned, she has established that the appellant was the author of the said injury,” the high court said relying on the girl’s statement. "In the present case, the question is not about the nature of injury but an attempt on the part of the assailant to assault the victim and the intention nurtured by him," said the judge. The court said that the prosecution had established beyond reasonable doubt that the accused was armed with a weapon. The medical evidence revealed that the victim had to undergo surgery and was injured in the small intestine. "The fact that he had brandished weapon and had also caused injury to the victim is sufficient to uphold the conviction for offence punishable under section 307 of the IPC," said the high court.