Mumbai: Observing it was a heinous crime, the Bombay High Court recently refused to grant permission to an accused in the Ashwini Bidre murder case. The HC has also directed the lower court to complete the trial in this case, within a year.
The direction was issued by a single-judge bench of Justice Anuja Prabhudesai while rejecting the bail application of accused Dnyandev alias Raju Patil.
“The offence is not only serious but also of heinous nature. Thus, releasing the accused Patil at this stage will hamper the trial,” Justice Prabhudesai observed.”Considering the fact, this murder occurred in 2016 and the accused have been in custody since 2017. I direct the trial court to conclude the trial as expeditiously as possible and even within a period of one year,” Justice Prabhudesai said in her orders.
Patil along with senior police inspector Abhay Kurundkar was arrested last year for killing police sub inspector Ashwini Bidre. According to the prosecution, Bidre was killed by Kurundkar and Patil at a house in Bhayander that too after kidnapping her.
In his plea, Patil argued that since he being a nephew of a MLA, he often went out on dinner or lunch with several policemen and on the relevant day, Kurundkar had invited him for dinner in an hotel in Bhayander. The court however, trashed his arguments, saying, “All this can be considered at the stage of trial. As of now, no case is made out for bail.”