News Analysis India

Tag: Maharashtra Court

  • Dabholkar murder case: Maharashtra court frames charges against 5 accused

    By PTI

    PUNE: A special court in Pune on Wednesday framed charges against five accused in the case of murder of anti-superstition activist Dr Narendra Dabholkar.

    Dabholkar, who headed the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti, was shot dead in Pune on August 20, 2013, allegedly by members of a right-wing extremist group.

    The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is conducting a probe into the case.

    A criminal trial starts once charges are framed.

    On Wednesday, Additional Sessions Judge S R Navandar (special judge for UAPA cases) asked the five accused – Virendra Sinh Tawde, Sachin Andure, Sharad Kalaskar, Sanjeev Punalekar and Vikram Bhave, – if they pleaded guilty, to which all of them replied in the negative.

    Tawde, Kalaskar and Andure, who appeared via video-conferencing from their respective jails, sought more time from the court, citing that they want to discuss the matter with their lawyers.

    The court, however, rejected the plea.

    The other two accused- advocate Punalekar and Bhave – appeared in the court physically.

    The court framed charges against Tawde, Andure, Kalaskar, and Bhave under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 302 (murder), 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), relevant sections of the Arms Act, and Section 16 of the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) (punishment for terrorist act).

    Besides, the charges against Punalekar were framed under IPC Section 201 (causing disappearance of the evidence or giving false inform to screen offender).

    CBI lawyer and special public prosecutor Prakash Suryavanshi later said the charges have been framed and further proceedings for the trial in the case have been scheduled on September 30.

  • Maharashtra: Court acquits five in case of attempt to murder

    By PTI
    THANE: A Thane court has acquitted five persons, including a bar manager and three other employees, in a 2013 case of attempt to murder and culpable homicide, saying the prosecution failed to prove the charges against them.

    District and Additional Sessions Judge P P Jadhav passed the order on February 10 and a copy of it was made available on February 17.

    Additional Public Prosecutor Vivek Kadu told the court that a car driven by one of the accused (who was not a bar employee) ran over a man on the night of September 25, 2013 outside a bar in Azad Nagar area of Maharashtra’s Thane city.

    The victim received serious injuries and died while undergoing treatment at a hospital.

    Later, the police filed supplementary charges, alleging that the bar manager and three other employees beat up the victim and threw him out of the bar where he got hit by the car and died.

    After the incident, the four bar staffers allegedly helped the car driver escape from the spot as a large number of locals gathered there to protest against the man’s death, the police said.

    However, the five accused, who were booked under various Indian Penal Code Sections, including 307 (attempt to murder) and 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), claimed they had been falsely implicated in the crime.

    After hearing both sides, the judge said at one point it has been alleged that a car hit the victim while he was crossing the road and later, another story has been “cooked up” against the accused.

    Also, the prosecution witnesses are close relatives of the deceased and their evidence also contradictory to the original complaint.

    Under such circumstances, their evidence is certainly not reliable, the judge said.

    There is nothing on record to show one of the accused drove the carina rash and negligent manner and that the vehicle ran over the victim.

    There is also no evidence to show that the four other accused helped him escape from the spot.

    To conclude, nothing is proved against any of the accused beyond reasonable doubt, the judge said in the order.

  • Maharashtra: Court acquits teacher of abetting student’s suicide

    By PTI
    PALGHAR: A court here in Maharashtra has acquitted a 35-year-old school teacher of charges of abetting the suicide of a teen-aged student in 2014.

    In an order issued on January 15, a copy of which was made available on Monday, additional sessions judge S S Gulhane said questioning a student does not amount to abetment of suicide.

    The judge also said that the prosecution failed to prove the charge under Indian Penal Code Section 305 (abetment of suicide of person below 18 years of age) against the accused, a mathematics teacher at an ashram school located in Talasari taluka of Palghar.

    According to the prosecution, the victim, who was studying in Class 10 at the school, allegedly hanged himself from the ceiling of his house in Talasari.

    Some of his classmates later told the boy’s father that when the accused teacher had enquired about marks of students in the maths exam, the victim lied to say he got more marks, though he had actually received less marks.

    The teacher then enquired if his father had asked him to tell the lie.

    He also asked the boy to call his father to school, but the victim refused to do so.

    The teacher then asked the victim and other students who had lied about their marks to go to the headmaster.

    According to the prosecution, the victim felt humiliated by the teacher’s questioning and committed suicide.

    In his order, the judge said the accused’s act of asking the deceased about his father (if he asked him to tell the lie)and to call the latter to school does not amount to abetment of suicide.

    “There is no men’s rea (intention) on part of the accused to abet the deceased to commit suicide,” he said.

    Being a teacher,it is his job to scold the students who tell lies, the judge said.

    The statement of the accused”is not an instigation and is also notanintentional aid to commit suicide”, the court said in its order.

    It is necessary for the prosecution to establish that by his acts,the applicant/accused could reasonably foresee that because of his conduct, the victim was almost certain, or at least quite likely to commit suicide, the judge said.

    “Unless this is established, a person cannot be charged of having abetted commission ofsuicide,even if the suicide has been committed as a result of some of the acts committed by the accused,” the court said.