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The mother of a man with epilepsy moved the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court seeking a direction to the trial court that acquitted the accused who tried to kill her son to consider the case under the provisions of the Mental Health Care Act and the Rights of the Person with Disability Act.
On August 17, 2010, four men started abusing Rehman Khan on account of an old quarrel. Habib Chaus and Sayyad Bhangarwala were allegedly holding knives in their hands while Sultan Chaus and Saddekh Chaus had a hockey stick each. They beat up Rehman badly. The police recorded his statement in the hospital and a FIR was registered. However, on July 22, 2021, Additional Sessions Judge A.A. Kulkarni acquitted all the accused.
Rehman's mother moved the High Court aggrieved by the finding of the sessions court that ruled, "This case is pending since 2011, Evidence recording started in the year 2017, In spite of sufficient opportunity given to prosecution to produce their witnesses, prosecution failed to secure presence of informant for adducing evidence before Court. At the fag end of this case attempt was made to prolong case on the ground that, informant (Rehman) is mentally ill. No sufficient documentary evidence about the inability of the witness is brought before this Court by the prosecution."
She has also challenged this paragraph in the court order, "Believing the evidence of the investigating officer as it is, ignoring the hostility of the panch witnesses and other witnesses, the same by itself cannot incriminate the accused especially when the injured – Rehman Khan has not whispered about the same by appearing before this court. From the evidence of all the witnesses no act of the accused is proved committed with intention, knowledge that, it is likely to cause death of the informant."
The mother filed a criminal appeal against the order of acquittal through advocate Niranjan Deshpande and pointed out, "Rehman is diagnosed by epilepsy and mood disorder, he is incapacitated and requires constant assistant and care for his daily survival. The trial Court should have decided the case in the light of the provisions of the mental health care act, rights of the person with disability act and the relevant provisions of the Indian evidence act." A division bench of justices VK Jadhav and Sandipkumar More is likely to pass an order on April 12.
