Thane court acquits gangster, four others in murder bid and extortion case

A Thane court has acquitted gangster Suresh Pujari and four others charged under the stringent MCOCA in a case of attempt to murder and extortion from a hotelier in 2017 noting the prosecutions case had major inconsistencies reported news agency PTISince the prosecution failed to prove the basic offence under the Indian Penal Code IPC the accused are also entitled to the benefit of the doubt for the offence under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act MCOCA special court judge Amit M Shete said in the order on February 1 reported PTIThe prosecution failed to establish the accuseds involvement in the case beyond a reasonable doubt said the Thane court order a copy of which was made available on Wednesday reported PTISuresh Pujari a former associate of gangster Ravi Pujari was deported to India from the Philippines in 2021 after being on the run for several years reported PTIThe gangster has more than 50 FIRs of extortion registered against him at police stations in Mumbai Navi Mumbai and ThaneAccording to the prosecution a masked person entered Hotel Galaxy in the Nalasopara area of the neighbouring Palghar district in Maharashtra on May 7 2017 and enquired about the establishments ownerThe person then allegedly opened fire at the hotels manager identified as Dilip and fled on a motorcycle before leaving behind a chit bearing the name of gangster Suresh Pujari reported PTIThe injured manager was rushed to a hospital and a case was subsequently registered under various IPC sections including 307 attempt to murder and provisions of the Arms Act Bombay Police Act and the MCOCABased on the investigation the police arrested five persons Suresh Basappa Pujari alias Shetty alias Satish Shaikh Pai 62 referred to as video parlour owner in Mumbai Raj Sheshrao Chavan alias Sunil 31 Ali Abas Jafar Khan 33 Sudhakar Sunder Christpriya alias Anna 58 and Mohd Saimi Mohd Ali Shaikh alias Sameer 29 all caterers from Mumbai Palghar and Surat in Gujarat reported PTIThe police claimed the accused were members of an organised crime syndicate and were involved in an attempt to extort money from the hotel ownerAfter nearly seven years of the trial the Thane court dismissed the charges stating the prosecutions case suffered from major inconsistencies reported PTIThe judge said the injured informant as well as the hotel staff failed to identify the accused who actually fired from a gun inside the establishmentThe investigation officer failed to carry out a TI test identification parade of the arrested accused to ascertain their presence at the scene In the absence of identification it is hard to say that the accused have really executed the alleged crime the court said reported PTIThe prosecution relied upon voice samples but procedural lacunae such as the lack of a section 65B certificate under the Evidence Act which authenticates electronic records and the possibility of tampering with recordings rendered the evidence unreliable it saidThe prosecution may have rightly invoked the offence under the MCOCA However the prosecution and witnesses failed to prove the basic offence under IPC Since the basic offence is not proved the accused are also entitled to the benefit of the doubt for the offence under MCOCA the court saidWith inputs from PTI