A 49-year-old man, Salim Ali Shaikh, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Mumbai court on Monday for murdering his 20-year-old son, Imran Shaikh, in 2018. The tragic incident occurred after Imran refused to address his stepmother as “ammi” (mother), leading to a violent confrontation. Salim, who stabbed Imran with a pair of scissors, was found guilty of murder by Judge S D Tawshikar.
The court condemned the apathy of bystanders and neighbors who failed to intervene or report the crime, despite it taking place around 9:30 pm in a crowded area. The judge noted the “helplessness” of Imran’s mother, who ran to the police station seeking help. He emphasized the troubling indifference displayed by those present at the scene, marking a decline in societal responsibility.
In a controversial turn, Imran’s biological mother, Parveen Shaikh, initially testified that her son had stabbed himself under the influence of drugs, but the court found her testimony unreliable, suggesting she may have tried to protect her husband. The judge criticized her emotional dilemma, acknowledging her grief for both her lost child and her husband’s fate.
Despite the prosecution’s request for the death penalty, the judge ruled that the crime did not meet the criteria for the “rarest of rare” category. Witnesses provided evidence of a physical altercation between father and son, establishing that Salim was responsible for the fatal injuries.
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