Pune:A sessions court convicted and sentenced a 27-year-old scrap dealer from Kondhwa to life imprisonment for murdering his former fiancée and attempting to kill her mother after their engagement was called off.Additional sessions judge Harshal Kisan Bhalerao on Thursday held the scrap dealer, Sharif Rajjak Shaikh, guilty under sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment for murder and 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment for attempted murder. Both sentences will run concurrently.Assistant public prosecutor Sanjay Pawar said, “Shaikh was engaged to the victim, Nazmin Shaikh (18), in 2018. The girl’s family later cancelled the marriage because of his behaviour. On July 23, 2019, he confronted Nazmin and her mother, Faimida Shaikh, in a lane near their house in Ganesh Peth and attacked them with a knife. Nazmin suffered multiple stab injuries and died during treatment. Her mother survived with serious injuries. Faraskhana police booked Sharif and he was arrested on July 27. He has been in jail since then.”The court relied heavily on the testimony of the victim’s mother, Faimida. She identified the scrap dealer as the assailant and remained consistent in her version throughout the trial. The court noted that nothing was brought on record in her cross-examination to discredit her statement.Medical evidence showed that Nazmin died because of hemorrhagic shock caused by multiple stab injuries. The court also relied on forensic evidence, noting that blood stains of the deceased and the injured were found on the clothes worn by Sharif at the time of his arrest.Rejecting the defence argument regarding the absence of fingerprints on the knife recovered from the spot, the court observed that in cases of repeated stabbing, the weapon was likely to be handled in such a manner that reduced the possibility of retaining fingerprints.The court relied on corroborative evidence, including the recovery of the weapon from the spot and testimony of a neighbour who stated that the victim had named the scrap dealer as the attacker immediately after the incident.Holding that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt, the court convicted Sharif and imposed the sentence.
