PANJIM: A businessman escaped imprisonment after the Additional Sessions Court, Mapusa, acquitted him of charges that he fatally stabbed his father in 2013. 

Deepak Luthria, in his 50s was charged with killing his father Shyam Luthria with a knife causing nearly 28 stab wounds at their resort in Baga on the night on November 4, 2013. The judgment, delivered by Judge Ashley Noronha on Saturday, comes after a four-year trial that saw 15 prosecution witnesses, including Deepak’s mother and his estranged wife, who deposed against him.

As per the charge sheet filed in 2014, Shyam, the 79-year-old owner of the upscale 110-room resort at Baga, was allegedly murdered by his son, a co-owner of the resort in what was suspected to be due to a property dispute.

Police had said that Shyam was found in the rear portion of the resort where groceries were stored and which overlooked a marshy open land with his throat slit and other stab injuries. An anonymous caller had tipped off the Calangute police that the deceased and Deepak were involved in a violent altercation over dinner and Deepak allegedly threatened to kill his father. The police arrested Deepak and gathered evidence in the case.

The crime had made headlines as the Luthrias were a glamorous business family from Mumbai who owned Hotel Sea Rock in the metor, a favourite celebrity hangout of the1980s and 1990s with its revolving restaurant. The hotel had hosted some of the most glamorous Bollywood parties for two decades before the 1993 blasts led to its closure. The property was thereafter sold by the family after which the father-son duo established their own resort in Goa in 2007. 

During the trial the prosecution led by PP Francisca Noronha attributed the motive of the accused to be greed for property and a bad relationship shared with the deceased. The prosecution’s entire case was rebutted by defence counsels Winnie Coutinho and Wilbur Menezes who appeared for the accused. The Court’s attention was drawn to various lapses in the investigation, factual details and positions of law.

Speaking to Herald, Menezes said that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond all reasonable doubt and that some deep faults of the shoddy investigation were exposed. “Justice has truly prevailed,” he said.