5 yrs on,6 acquitted of UK tourist murder

Six men accused of lynching Stephen Bennett to death in Dec 2006 were acquitted

Six men accused of lynching British tourist Stephen Bennett to death in December 2006 were acquitted by a Mangaon Additional Sessions Court on Saturday. Bennett was travelling from Goa to Mumbai when he was killed.

Additional District Judge Vilas Patil pronounced the judgment after a four-year trial and acquitted the six accused from Malasai village. Ramesh Mene,Vithoba Mene,Nathuram Mohite,Raju Malusare,Kashiram Marathe and Ravindra Dalvi were charged with Bennetts murder and picked up from their homes soon after Bennetts badly mutilated body was found on December 11,2006,hanging from a tree on a hill in Malasai. The High Court had granted the accused bail in 2007.

The case was first handled by the local police,and later shifted to the Alibaug Crime Branch. The prosecution maintained through the trial that Bennett got off the train at Roha junction on December 7 and his body was found in the early hours of December 11. The statements collected,including that of prime witness Narayan Mohite,who allegedly saw the villagers beating the tourist on December 10,were cited as the main prosecution evidence. The chargesheet had stated that Bennett was killed after he allegedly attacked and tried to molest Nirmala,the wife of the prime accused Ramesh. The fury of the villagers over this alleged indecent act was shown as the motive behind the murder.

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The first intimation of Bennetts death to his family was that it was a suicide. The police later informed them that it was an act of honour killing.

Of the 28 witnesses,most of the important ones retracted their statements. Another blow to the prosecutions theory came when the panch witnesses told the court they never visited the crime scene.