Thane: Three persons accused of murdering their colleague and disposinig off his body have been
acquitted by the district sessions court due to lack of evidence. The accused had killed the victim and had dumped his body in Vasai creek. The police were, however, unable to trace his body since the trail commenced in 2014.
District judge P P Jadhav ruled that the prosecution failed to prove the charges of murder as well as destruction of evidence against Rajesh Koli (43) aka Kaka, Rahul Thorat (35) aka Pappu and Rajendra Rajbhar (53) aka Muchhad.
The prosecutions argued that the three had collectively conspired and killed Ganesh Bhoi on suspicion that he was in an illicit relationship with Koli’s sister.
The court was informed that Bhoi used to work with Koli and Thorat and was friends with Rajbhar. However, their relation soured when the news of his affair with Koli’s sister surfaced and on August 26, 2014, he was murdered.
“Bhoi was beaten up in the presence in the presence of people. One of the witnesses said that they had intervened and tried to resolve the issue. However, the next day they saw his dead body lying in the grass and the trio disposed it off in the creek. The bloated corpse resurfaced and the three accused then carried it in a boat and tied a huge stone to it and dumped in the Vasai creek,’’ the prosecutor claimed.
Advocate Ramrao Jagtap who argued on behalf of the three accused said the body of Bhoi has not been traced and there was no justification in the police claim that he was murdered. In his order the judge said, “As already mentioned, the body of deceased is not discovered and his presence with the three accused and of being assaulted by them is also not duly proved. The prosecution has miserably failed to prove any allegations levelled against the accused."