8 charged with murder of social worker in 2014 acquitted

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Friday acquitted eight accused who were booked for murdering a social worker and assaulting his family members in Ghatkopar in 2014

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Friday acquitted eight accused who were booked for murdering a social worker and assaulting his family members in Ghatkopar in 2014. While pronouncing the order, additional sessions judge A A Joglekar noted that there were glaring contradictions in the material testimonies and the accused’s motive behind causing such grievous bodily harm could not be ascertained.

HT Image

“When the witness is a close family member of the deceased with a factum of animosity against the accused, it is important to have some other ocular evidence and when the testimony of those witnesses contradicts medical reports, a case for benefit of the doubt is made out,” the court said.

“The entire incident is inclusive of chain of events, which have occurred one after the other at three distinct places, which constitutes a continuous offence propelling for the involvement and active participation in the assault of the deceased, the informant, the driver and the mother of the informant,” the court order said.

During the hearing, public prosecutor submitted that the witnesses had stood up to their testimony and therefore, the factum of motive was inconsequential.

Advocates representing the accused opposed this submission, saying, “Prosecution has failed to bring on record any documentary or ocular, cogent and supportive evidence to substantiate the factum of prior animosity between the family of deceased and accused.” They argued that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt as the actual occurrence of incident and the timings stated by prosecution witnesses differed widely and the scope for doubt was generated by the prosecution witnesses themselves.

“The doubt would be held reasonable if it is free from abstract speculation. Law cannot afford any favourite other than truth and to constitute reasonable doubt, it must be free from an over emotional response,” the advocates added.

According to the prosecution, Rashid Manihar (informant) resided with his deceased father Yasin Manihar, mother Reshmabi, four sisters and one brother at Old Furniture Market in Ghatkopar west. The family’s shop was adjacent to their residence. The informant’s uncle and his driver also worked with the family.

The family of the accused resided beside the informant’s family, and the two families allegedly had a long-standing dispute. The informant’s family accused the neighbours of throwing water on his sister Nikhatbi, following which the family of the accused occupied a part of the informant’s house to store scrap. Subsequently, the police warned the family of the accused, for which they held a grudge against the informant’s family.

On April 14, 2014, around 11.30pm, the informant’s family got to know that their paternal uncle Hussain Manihar and driver Mehboob Shaikh had an altercation with accused Mehamoodali Idrisi. Yasin and Rashid Manihar rushed to the spot to see that the accused was beating Hussain Manihar and Mehboob Shaikh.

At this point, accused Akram Idrisi allegedly assaulted them and Yasin Manihar fell down, but his son Rashid managed to escape. Mehamoodali threw a huge stone on Yasin’s head, while the other accused assaulted him with a wooden rafter.

“Shehenshah (Akram) had attempted to throw another huge stone at father. But I managed to push him away in time. Hence, the stone did not hit father,” said Nikhatbi in her deposition.

When Yasin Manihar stopped moving, his wife Reshmabi ran to him, and was allegedly assaulted by the accused. The accused then fled from the spot. When Rashid Manihar returned, he and his friend rushed his father and other injured to the hospital. The father was declared dead on arrival. The informant’s family lodged a complaint with the Sakinaka police station after this.

The accused were booked under sections 143 (punishment for unlawful assembly), 144 (unlawful assembly armed with deadly weapon), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.