India jails Nigerian 4 years for stabbing Nigerian over girlfriend

An Indian  court  in Panaji, Goa,  has sentenced a Nigerian  to four years in jail on charges of stabbing to death another Nigerian  at Verla—Bardez.

The Nigerian Michael Nzube committed the offence in 2012 after accusing the victim, Chukwuebuka Henry  of chasing his girlfriend.

The court noted that the offence of the accused was that of culpable homicide not amounting to murder because evidence proved that while the accused caused the death of  Henry, there was no intention to cause death in the sudden fight.

In his ruling, additional sessions judge, Mapusa, Desmond D’Costa said, based on the facts and circumstances of the case, a four- year simple imprisonment would be justice enough “as this is the first conviction of the accused and the incident took place due to a dispute over the friendship of the deceased with the girlfriend of the accused”.

The court also fined the accused 10,000 rupees.

Michael Nzube was held guilty under section 304 (Part II) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the basis an eyewitness statement. The witness, Michael Okafor, also a Nigerian, deposed that the accused had stabbed Henry in his flat at Verla with a knife.

The prosecution also proved that the blood found on the accused’s pants matched the deceased’s blood group.

At 2.30am on December 21, 2012, the accused, on suspicion, went to deceased’s flat and started searching for his girlfriend. The witness had accompanied the accused to the flat.

In an ensuing fight that broke out between the accused and the deceased, the witness was pushed into the bedroom by the duo. By the time he emerged from the bedroom, the victim had been stabbed.

The witness told the court that the victim told him that accused had stabbed him with a knife, and showed him the stab wounds on his stomach.

Public prosecutor A Talaulikar argued that the accused had not explained the injuries on the victim with whom he admitted that he had a fight on that night.

While convicting the accused, the judge observed, “On considering the oral and documentary evidence on record in the present case, I hold that based on the direct evidence of the eyewitness as well as circumstantial evidence, the prosecution has proved that the accused had stabbed Henry with a knife in his flat at Verla causing him bleeding injuries.”

The judge noted that there is the circumstantial evidence of the blood group, which linked the accused alone with the injuries that had been caused to the victim on that morning.

*Reported by Times Of India

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