In a shocking incident, a complainant attacked two accused persons with a knife in front of a Magistrate during a hearing in a city court on Wednesday.
Eyewitness accounts said that the incident took place inside Bhoiwada Court No 5 at Dadar (east) in north-central Mumbai, at around 12.30 pm in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S.J. Biyani, soon after the court acquitted the two accused in an eight-year-old assault case.
Relieved as they were with the verdict, the two acquitted accused -- Mahesh Mappalkar and Nandesh Kadwadkar-- were quietly standing near the dock, when t he complainant --- identified as Harischandra Shirkar (67) reached them, whipped out a knife from his pocket and slashed the two on their heads.
A team of police officials, accompanying the acquitted accused, immediately overpowered Shirkar, confiscated the weapon and took him into custody. “We have arrested Shirkar under arrest on various charges including attempt to murder,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone IV) N Ambika said.
Mappalkar and Kadwadkar, who sustained severe head injuries in the incident, were rushed to the nearby KEM Hospital, where they are reported to be stable and out of danger. Meanwhile, senior officials are investigating the security lapse which saw Shirkar smuggle in a knife inside the courtroom. Preliminary investigations have revealed that Shirkar who been assaulted by Mappalkar and Kadwadkar eight years ago near Elphinstone Road railway station, reacted to the duo’s acquittal in the case violently, as he was in a state of acute depression.
Having anticipated the possible release of the accused by the court on Wednesday, Shirkar had come prepared with a knife from his home which he managed to smuggle inside the courtroom.