Loharia murder case: HC rejects plea for submitting additional evidence

The Bombay High Court rejected a plea to submit additional evidence in the murder case of a prominent builder from Navi Mumbai, citing delay and potential prejudice to the accused.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday rejected a plea filed by Sandeep Loharia for tendering additional evidence against some of the accused who tried killing his father, Sunil Kumar Loharia, a prominent builder from Navi Mumbai.

HT Image

Loharia, who had exposed the FSI (floor space index) scam involving around 600 builders from Navi Mumbai, was gunned down outside his office in Vashi on February 16, 2013 morning.

Navi Mumbai police crime branch, which investigated the case, has arrested all 13 persons in connection with the murder, including some rival builders, a retired police officer and his alleged henchmen. The crime branch in October 2013 filed a chargesheet against them and the trial started in October 2017.

Two years later, in 2019, the prosecution filed an application seeking to adduce some additional evidence – some audio/video clips recorded by the deceased, including that of his conversations with Anurag Garg, a prime accused in the case, and some documents recording sale – purchase transactions of some plots in Nerul and Panvel.

A single-judge bench of justice Anuja Prabhudessai on Thursday rejected his plea, primarily on the ground of delay.

The judge said undoubtedly, the investigating agency can record statements or supplementary statements of a witness and conduct effective investigation with an endeavour to bring out the truth and the power of investigation is ordinarily not impinged by any fetters, ordinarily the powers cannot be curtailed only on account of delay.

“Nevertheless, investigation has to be in conformity with the constitutional mandate of expeditious and fair investigation,” said justice Prabhudessai. “As in the instant case, subjecting the accused to piecemeal and endless investigation certainly does not conform to the rule of law,” the bench added.

HC noticed that in the Loharia murder case, the charge was framed and explained to the accused on October 30, 2017. The evidence of the first witness was recorded on December 7, 2018, and some of the accused have been in custody for over eight years. The court also noted that the investigating officer of the case has stated that the prosecution intends to examine around 70 of the 199 witnesses cited in the charge sheet and testimonies of 63 of them are already recorded and all these 63 witnesses have been cross-examined by the defence lawyers.

“In such a situation,” the court said, “the accused who have disclosed their defence will be greatly and irreversibly prejudiced if the prosecution is allowed to produce additional evidence and fill in the lacuna at this belated stage.”