THANE: A Thane court has sentenced a man and his son to life imprisonment for killing a meat shop owner and attempting to murder his brother in 2010 in Mumbra here.
Additional Sessions Judge Hemant M Patwardhan, in his order on Thursday, convicted Mohammad Hanif Qureshi alias Baba (50), and his son Nadim (24) for killing Mohammad Abdul and awarded them life imprisonment.
The court also slapped a fine of 15,000 each on the duo.
Qureshi's other son, Wasim, who was also tried in the case, was acquitted for want of sufficient evidence.
Public Prosecutor Vasha Chandane, in her submission, told the court that Abdul owned a mutton shop in Mumbra's Amrut Nagar, while the accused and his sons were fruit sellers in the same locality.
According to the prosecution, Qureshi was trying to poach one of the workers of the victim.
On April 30 2010, when Abdul went to Qureshi's shop to confront him about his behaviour, and also convince him to not try and take away his worker, the accused and his sons assaulted Abdul with a knife, killing him on the spot.
They also attacked the victim's brother with the knife.
Later, a case was lodged by the Mumbra police against Qureshi and his two sons on charges of murder and attempt to murder.
Advocate Baba Shaikh, appearing on behalf of the accused, argued that on the day of the incident, Abdul first began to abuse Qureshi and his sons on suspicion that they have instigated Abdul's worker to join them, which led to a heated argument between them.
He also told the court that Abdul assaulted the accused with a knife but himself got injured in the scuffle.
It was only later that the accused got to know that Abdul died and that they have been booked for his alleged killing under IPC section 302 (murder), the court was told.
The judge, in the order, observed that as submitted by the prosecutor, out of 10 witnesses examined, five were eye witnesses of the incident and each of them corroborated the incident.