Thane Court's Verdict: Acquittal for Murder, Imprisonment for Evidence Tampering

A Thane court acquitted Anita Rathod for a 2019 murder of a child but sentenced her and Akash Chavan to three years in prison for evidence tampering. The prosecution couldn't prove the murder due to lack of evidence showing the cause of the child's death, which was found in a decomposed state.

A Thane court has acquitted Anita Rathod of murdering a 9-year-old girl in 2019. However, she and her co-accused, Akash Sopan Chavan, were sentenced to three years of rigorous imprisonment for tampering with evidence related to the child's death.

The prosecution struggled to establish the cause of death, as the body was in a decomposed condition, rendering the postmortem report inconclusive. This lack of evidence led to the court's acquittal of the murder charge, with Additional Sessions Judge AS Bhagwat stating that the prosecution failed to prove how the girl died.

The case involved allegations of child abuse and neglect by the accused, Anita Rathod, and her now-deceased husband, Prakash Rathod. Despite the murder acquittal, the court found evidence implicating Rathod and Chavan in the deliberate concealment of the crime, leading to their conviction under sections 201 and 34 of the IPC. They were also fined Rs 5,000 each and denied probation.

(With inputs from agencies.)