2020 murder case: Thane court acquits two; says victim died of heart attack

A Maharashtras Thane district court has acquitted two men charged with the murder of their neighbor in October 2020 holding that he died of natural causes reported the PTIThe prosecution failed to prove the charges against the suspects Gufran Yusufali Ansari 30 and Shahnawaz Mohammed Shafi Ansari 34 beyond a reasonable doubt said judge S B Agrawal in the October 27 judgement a copy of which became available on FridayThe incident had taken place on October 8 2020 at Sai Prasad Chawl in Mumbra near Thane district of MaharashtraAs per the prosecution Gulam Rasool Jamil Haq Shaikh who ran a stove repair shop objected to the dust generated by carpentry work done by the father of accused Gufran who had a tailoring shop nearby according to the PTIThe quarrel led to an assault by Gufran on Shaikh in the morning the prosecution claimed Later at around 8 PM when Shaikhs children questioned the accused they abused the children and allegedly beat up Shaikh causing his deathBut the court noted that none of the independent witnesses supported the prosecutions case and the doctor who examined the deceased concluded that he died of a heart attackApart from a single contusion no injury was found on the deceased Thus it cannot be said that deceased died a homicidal death the judge said as per the PTIFrom all the aforesaid evidence it is apparent that a petty quarrel is tried to be blown out of proportion by over implicating the accused persons only because of the death of the deceased due to heart attack immediately after the incident and as such it cannot be said that prosecution has been successful in bringing home the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt the court said acquitting both the me the news agency reportedIn an another judgement earlier this month acourt in Maharashtrarsquos Thane district had acquitted four men accused of 2022 murder case of a man citing that the prosecution had based the case entirely on circumstantial evidence PTI had reportedPrincipal 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 IPCThe order was passed by the court on October 17According to the prosecution cousins Akshay Lahu Patil and Ajinkya Ramdas Patil had a longrunning dispute with the victim Mangesh Maruti Patil over ancestral property and plans to open a beer shop They allegedly hired Pravin Jagtap and Rahul Suryavanshi for Rs 50000 to kill him as per the PTIOn April 13 2022 Mangesh was allegedly lured with alcohol strangled and had his throat slit in the Murbad area His body was recovered six days later the prosecution claimedHowever after hearing arguments from both sides the court found that the prosecutionrsquos evidence was inconclusiveThe judge noted that the alleged motive mdash the dispute over property and business mdash was vague and unsubstantiated as per the PTIThe court also observed that the victimrsquos family had not raised suspicion against the accused despite several visits to the police station and that the recovery of the body weapon and clothes was doubtfulldquoThis by itself creates doubt about these panchanamas as well as the claim that the body and place were discovered at the instance of accused Pravin Jagtap The recovery was further tainted by the admission that a police officer had informed others about the dead body a day before the official recoveryrdquo the court stated the news agency reportedwith PTI inputs