A court in Maharashtra has given a 52-year-old man from the Palghar district a life sentence for the murder of his 75-year-old paternal uncle seven years ago due to a property dispute.

Following his conviction for murder under section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, Sessions Judge Rachna R Tehra also imposed a fine of 5,000 on Ramdas Shankar Budhar of the Jawhar taluka in her ruling on Wednesday.

The split of their ancestors’ land was the source of a long-running dispute between Ramdas and Ambu Navsu Budhar, the brother of Ramdas’ father, according to additional public prosecutor Sandhya H Mhatre.

The court was informed that Ramdas frequently quarrelled with his uncle and claimed he had been granted unproductive land.

On the morning of March 5, 2016, Ramdas used an axe to murder his uncle, who was dozing off on his farm.

In order to establish the facts of the crime, 12 witnesses for the prosecution were questioned, according to APP Mhatre, and the court relied on the circumstantial evidence to convict and sentence Ramdas.