MARGAO: Principal Sessions Judge Desmond D’Costa on Wednesday sentenced Pratima Naik to life imprisonment and also imposed a fine of Rs 45,000 in the infamous double murder case of her mother-in-law Usha Naik and sister-in-law Neha Naik on January 30, 2015.
The accused was found guilty under Section 302 of Indian Penal Code of having murdered Usha Naik by strangulating her while Neha was smothered to death on the same night and both the deaths were found to be homicidal by the judge.
She was sentenced to life imprisonment under Section 302 and also directed to pay a fine of Rs 25,000 or in default to undergo two years simple imprisonment.
Pratima was also found guilty under Section 380 for committing theft in a dwelling house and was sentenced to three years simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 or in default six months of simple imprisonment.
She was also found guilty under Section 328 relating to causing of hurt with means of poison, etc and sentenced to three years of simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 10,000 or in default six months simple imprisonment.
While all the jail sentences were to run concurrently the fine, if paid was to be distributed between the two sons of deceased Usha Naik.The prosecution examined 15 witnesses including a family member of the deceased as well as a family member of the convict and went to great length to prove the previous conduct of the convict to prove its case. By examining a friend of the convict, the prosecution brought on record that Pratima had said that she would kill her mother-in-law even before she was married. Besides, through the younger sister of the convict the prosecution brought on record that the convict had committed a theft of gold bangles from her marital house barely two days after her marriage.
Besides, it was also established that the gold ornaments of both the deceased persons were recovered at the instance of the convict.
Pratima’s sister’s husband Sidharth who was the accused No 2 turned approver and his testimony helped clinch the case against the convict.
Due to traffic snarls the accused was late in appearing in the court by nearly one hour and was totally stone faced when the judge read out the sentence and even afterwards where she was seen conversing normally with the police personnel or her advocate with no expression whatsoever on her face or demeanor. However, he advocate Julius Gomes stated that they would be appealing against the order and insisted that their client was innocent and in fact a victim of assault as she had knife injuries and was in the hospital for two days after the incident.
