Mumbai: 24-year-old sentenced for murdering gay friend

Mumbai, Sep 9: A 24-year-old student was sentenced for seven years of rigorous imprisonment for murdering his male friend.

Alexander D'Souza murdered his male friend Ryan Gomes, who allegedly wanted to have a physical relationship with him, in December 2012. The verdict was announced by Dindoshi Sessions court yesterday, Sep 8.

Alexander was a final year BMM student at the time of incident. He was sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment under Section 304 (2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC along with a fine of Rs 10,000.

15 witnesses including Alexander's brother and parents were examined by public prosecutor Ashok Joshi. The Defence lawyer Kaushik Mhatre examined six witnesses.

He told that, Alexander was involved falsely in the case. He also added that when accused arrived at the decease's house, he found him stabbed. Alexander made phone call to Ryan's mom, an ambulance and the police.

The case happened in 2012. Ryan Gomes, who was a 21-year-old B.Ed student, visited to a chawl in Navagaon, Dahisar (West), to a room bought by his father. On December 24, 2012, Ryan called Alexander to his place around 6 am.

According to police, a dispute arose between Ryan and Alexander around 7 am. Following the dispute the accused stabbed the deceased in the stomach with a kitchen knife.

The case was filed based on circumstantial evidence. Three neigbours of the deceased saw him with the accused .

Alexander was convicted under culpable homicide not amounting to murder, as it was done after sudden provocation. The MHB police then arrested D'Souza and arrested under murder charges.

The probe done by police had discovered that Alexander had alleged that Gomes tried to touch him inappropriately, and so he asked Ryan to back off. But the deceased wanted a physical relationship with him which led to the murder.

OneIndia News