On 18th April the life sentence of Nijam Asgar Hashmi, who beheaded 20-year-old Umesh Ingale, the cousin of his girlfriend Geetanjali Ingale, was suspended by the Bombay High Court and granted bail. The last-seen theory was deemed unfeasible by a bench of Justices AS Gadkari and Shyam C. Chandak, who claimed that it was prima facie impossible to accept that the weapon used to kill the victim, which was unearthed at the accused’s instance from a ditch with water up to the knee contained human blood.
The court pronounced, “It is important to note here that, though the weapon used in the present crime was recovered from a ditch/pond in the presence of P.W.2, from a place filled with water up to knee level, the Chemical Analyser Report mentions that, human blood was found on the said weapon. Prima facie we cannot accept the prosecution case to that extent.”
The police apprehended then-19-year-old Nizam Asgar Hashmi on the charges of murdering Umesh Ingale in 2018 because he didn’t like the latter’s closeness with his cousin, who was also the culprit’s girlfriend. On 19th June 2018, a man’s decapitated and partially nude body was discovered by several labourers close to Punyadham Ashram in Pune’s Kondhwa Budruk neighbourhood. A bloodstained T-shirt and a sandal were also found within fifty feet of the radius.
The deceased was attacked with a sharp object, resulting in injuries to his hands and abdomen. The assailant then undressed his clothes to obscure the proof. During the investigation, the severed head and the murder weapon were discovered in a canal.
The prosecution stated that the perpetrator asked Umesh Ingale to have “sheer khurma” with him on the occasion of Eid and had intended to get rid of him. According to the prosecution, Nijam Asgar Hashmi savagely attacked the young man while he was eating and then disfigured his body to hide his identity. On 30th September 2023, the Pune Sessions court declared him guilty of murder in violation of Section 302 and evidence disappearance in violation of Section 201 of the Indian Penal Code and sentenced him to life in jail after 24 witnesses testified during the trial.
The prosecution asserted that on 19th June 2018 at around 7:50 pm Nijam Hashmi and Umesh Ingale were visible in CCTV footage close to the location where the dismembered body came to light. The corpse was found around three days after the two were last seen together which was a significant amount of time gap, according to the bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Shyam Chandak.
“Applicant has been behind bars since the date of his arrest i.e. 21st June 2018 and has undergone more than 5 years and 6 months in incarceration as of today. Given the above during the pendency of the Appeal we are inclined to suspend the sentence of the Applicant and enlarge him on bail,” the bench noted.
The two used to visit Balaji Fitness Club situated at Bibawewadi. Umesh Ingale left home on 16th June 2018 to go there but he never came back. He and Nijam Hashmi were captured together on CCTV footage and seen by a witness on the same day. Authorities found the Hindu man’s PAN card and cell phone in a ditch next to a canal along with the murder weapon, a “Sattur” after Nijam Hashmi revealed it.
The weapon, per his lawyer Sana Raees Khan, surfaced four days after the incident in a pond that was knee-deep in water, yet it still had bloodstains on it. She added that the weapon’s blood did not match the deceased’s, based on the chemical analysis findings.
Nijam Asgar Hashmi appealed against the conviction and filed an interim application seeking suspension of sentence and release on bail. After his arrest, Nijam Hashmi has been imprisoned for more than five years and six months. The court determined to give him bail while his appeal was pending in light of these considerations.
The court provided him bail contingent upon the submission of a Rs. 50,000 PR bond and one or two financially stable local sureties in an equivalent amount. He is also required to report to the Kondhawa Police Station in Pune on the first Monday of every month for the first year, and then every third month afterwards. If bail restrictions are violated twice in a row, the prosecution is free to request that the bail be cancelled.
