Arun Gawli, 11 others may be sentenced today

The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court is likely to pronounce the quantum of punishment to gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli and 11 others, who have been convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar on Monday.

The special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court is likely to pronounce the quantum of punishment to gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli and 11 others, who have been convicted for the murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar on Monday.

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The trial, which took 23 months, ended in July this year. Last week, the special court convicted 12 of the 16 people arrested in the case.

While the prosecution is seeking for capital punishment, the defence is asking for leniency.

On March 2, 2007, two contract killers had barged into Jamsandekar’s house at Asalpha, Ghatkopar, and shot him dead. Sadashiv Surve, Jamsandekar’s rival, had paid Gawli to kill the three-time corporator over a land dispute.

Apart from Gawli, Sandeep Gangal, Shrikrishna Gurav, Pratap Godse, Ajit Rane, Suresh Patil, Sunil Ghate, Vijay Giri, Ashok Jaiswal, Narendra Giri, Anil Giri and Shahabrao Bhintade were convicted by the court.

However, three men — Suresh Panchal, Ganesh Surve and Dinesh Narkar — were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The court held that Gawli and the others were part of the organised crime syndicate and ran an extortion racket. The court further said that he and his co-accused were the conspirators and actively participated in the crime.

The court further held that Gawli was paid Rs30 lakh to murder Jamsandekar and Vijay, Narendra and Anil planned the murder and executed it.

The special public prosecutor sought for capital punishment claiming that though the case may not be rarest of the rare, it was the case of an organised crime syndicate. Their advocate Girish Kulkarni appealed that the convicts be sentenced to life imprisonment.