Court Acquits Four Men in 2022 Murder Case

Thane: A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district has acquitted four persons accused of murdering a man in 2022, citing that the prosecution had based the case entirely on circumstantial evidence.

Principal District and Sessions Judge S. B. Agrawal acquitted the accused, Pravin Ramdas Jagtap, Rahul Virbhan Suryavanshi, Akshay Lahu Patil, and Ajinkya Ramdas Patil, of charges under sections 302 (murder), 120(B) (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), and 364 (abduction) of the Indian Penal Code.

A copy of the order dated October 17 was made available on Thursday.

The prosecution had stated that cousins Akshay Lahu Patil and Ajinkya Ramdas Patil had a longstanding dispute with the victim, Mangesh Maruti Patil, over ancestral property and a plan to open a beer shop, and they allegedly hired Pravin Ramdas Jagtap and Rahul Virbhan Suryavanshi for Rs 50,000 to murder him.

On April 13, 2022, Mangesh was allegedly lured with liquor, strangled, and his throat was slit in the Murbad area. The body was recovered six days later, the prosecution said.

After hearing the arguments, the judge noted that the case rested on circumstantial evidence and found that the evidence regarding the motive the property and business dispute was vague.

The court also pointed out that the family members of the victim had failed to raise suspicion regarding the accused despite visiting the police station on multiple occasions.

The court found that the recovery of the body, weapon, and clothes at the instance of the accused was questionable.

“This, by itself, creates doubt about these panchnamas, as also the fact that the body and the place were found at the instance of the accused, Pravin Jagtap. The recovery was further tainted by the admission that a police officer informed others about the dead body a day before the official recovery,” it said.