Man gets life for bludgeoning cop to death with log on building terrace

MUMBAI: A

sessions

court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced a man to

life

imprisonment for clubbing a police

constable

to death with a wooden log on a building’s

terrace

in 2014. The cop had asked the man, who had trespassed the

building

at

Wadi Bunder

on P D’Mello Road, to surrender.

Judge M G Deshpande said, “A fair trial is not only for the right of the accused but also for the victim. Ajay Gawand (43) was young and the only breadwinner of his family. Since his demise, his family has been orphaned. Not only this, but he was also an asset to the

police

department as submitted by the special public prosecutor.”

The

court

said the accused, Santosh Salve (37), had knowledge of the consequences of repeated blows to the victim’s skull. It said a log is a heavy, long and a deadly weapon if used to inflict blows on the head.

Gawand had won the Shiv Chhatrapati Body Building Award 2005.

Special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray examined 10 witnesses, including three eye-witnesses—API Arun Thorat, head constable Dinkar Patil and journalist Mohammed Shafique who was passing by and stopped to help the policemen. Shafique was well-acquainted with the cops.

The prosecution told the court that the constable was part of a Dongri police patrol team that had arrived on the spot at 2.15am on November 16, 2014. Upon their arrival, the cops saw that people had gathered and the accused was loitering on the terrace pelting stones at them. The cops then put on helmets, took shields and climbed the stairs. All appeals to him to surrender were refused. The terrace was locked from inside.

The prosecution further said that cops decided to climb up the terrace by using window grilles. The prosecution said that Gawand was the first to enter the terrace, while Thorat and Shafique followed. Once again, Gawand asked the accused to surrender. However, the accused began to hit him with the log. Gawand was seriously injured and fell to the ground but the accused continued to hit him. Shafique overpowered him and Thorat took away the log and opened the terrace door. Gawand died in J J Hospital.

Refuting the defence allegation that Shafique was an interested witness as he was known to the cops, the court said his evidence alone inspired confidence to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt. “Being a journalist, his acquaintance with police is natural. It cannot be ignored that he is a journalist and no journalist who comes across such an incident would leave the place without seeing what happens. Merely because he is a police friend does not create doubts about his testimony,” the court said.

While Salve was convicted for murder, causing grievous hurt, obstructing a public officer on duty and house-trespass with an intention to cause hurt, he was acquitted of charges of theft. Swati, Gawand’s wife, said she would have demanded death penalty for the killer and was dispoainted with the verdict. “Salve has ruined my family. Police personnel never called me in the court nor did they update me about the court proceedings,” said an upset Swati. She was given the job of a clerk at additional commissioner’s office (East region) a month after her husband’s death. “The state did not give my husband’s salary for two years. We started receiving his salary since December last year. My parents are my pillar of strength,” said Swati.