Farid Tanasha murder case: Court awards life term to 6, RI to 5 others

MUMBAI : Eight years after he was shot dead at his residence in Chembur, a special MCOCA court on Wednesday held all 11 accused guilty in the Farid Tanasha murder case. Tanasha was an alleged aide of gangster Chhota Rajan. Special MCOCA judge S M Bhosale, after convicting all 11, sentenced six to life imprisonment and five others to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment.


The special court had framed charges against the accused in 2016 after accepting draft charges submitted and argued by special public prosecutor Raja Thakre under various sections of the Indian Penal Code for murder, criminal conspiracy and the stringent law to curb organised crime, Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

Thakre had argued that there was evidence to show that the accused Jafar Khan, Mohammed Khan, Raviprakash Sinh, Pankaj Sinh and Randhir Sinh had executed the conspiracy by killing him. While Jafar and Randhir allegedly shot dead the victim on June 3, 2010, the three others provided them a cover. Thakare said the motive was real estate business. Shedding light on the alleged motive, he had said that accused Dattatrya Bhakare, a builder, was developing a plot at Chembur which the society members had objected to. He further said that the members had approached the victim for help. Thakre had told the court that since Tanasha supported the society members, Bhakare decided to eliminate him and took the help of absconding accused Bharat Nepali and Vijay Shetty. The prosecutor said that for this the builder spent Rs 90 lakh.

The 11 accused convicted are: 1. Jafar Razialam Khan @ Abbas, 2. Mohd. Sakib Sahanawaz Alam Khan, 3. Raviprakash Ramshiromani Sinh @ Twinkle, 4. Pankaj Nanhku Sinh, 5. Randhir Ashok Sinh @ Nikhil, 6. Mohd. Rafik Abdul Samad Shaikh @ Shankar, 7. Dattatraya Yashwant Bhakare, 8. Ravindra Sitaram Varerkar, 9. Vishwanath Maranna Shetty, 10.Rajendra Rohidas Chavan and 11. Dinesh Bhawarlal Bhandari @ Lalji.

The court convicted six accused, A1-A6, Jafar Khan, Mohammed Sakib, Raviprakash, Pankaj, Randhir and Mohammed Rafik for murder, criminal conspiracy and sections 3(1)(1) and 3(4) of MCOCA for committing murder through a syndicate hit. It convicted accused 7 to 11 for only on offence, under section 3(2) of MCOCA for abetment and preparatory acts.

Section 3(2) of MCOCA stipulates that “Whoever conspires or attempts to commit or advocates, abets or knowingly facilitates the commission of an organised crime or any act preparatory to organised crime, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall be not less than five years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and shall also be liable to a fine, subject to a minimum of rupees five lacs.”

The court pronouncing its verdict appears to have accepted the prosecution case and held them guilty of various roles proved through circumstantial evidence. Though defence lawyers, including Sudeep Pasbola, had argued lack of evidence, the court found sufficient evidence on record against all the accused to convict them.

Earlier, while framing charges, the court had described the roles of each of the accused. The accused Vishwanath Shetty had helped the amount reach the shooters. It means all the accused were working in association with each other as member of an organized crime syndicate headed by absconding accused. As such I am of the view that on the basis of available prima facie evidence on record, charges for an offence punishable under section of the MCOCA can be framed against all the accused," the court had said then.