A sessions court has acquitted an accused in a 30-year-old murder after the prosecution failed to provide adequate evidence against him. Additional sessions judge K.R. Joglekar, while acquitting the accused, said, “There is absolutely nothing in the evidence which goes against the accused.”
According to the prosecution, Ravindra Kamble along with Dada Gharat and Rony Mendosa allegedly killed Sunil Pednekar by drowning him in the creek near the Jolly Board company in Kanjurmarg (East) in 1988.
The prosecution said that Mr. Kamble, Mendosa and Pednekar used to buy illicit liquor from Mr. Gharat. On July 29, 1988, Pednekar bought 40 litres of liquor from Mr. Gharat, stored it in a tyre tube and tied it to his bicycle. The prosecution said Mr. Kamble, Mr. Gharat and Mendosa drowned Pednekar in a nullah in the creek. The trio then allegedly sold the liquor and destroyed the evidence by disposing of the bicycle.
The Kanjurmarg police charged Ravindra Kamble and Dada Gharat in 1988 under Sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence, or giving false information to screen offender) of the Indian Penal Code. As Mendosa had died by then, his name was not included in the charge sheet. Mr. Kamble went absconding and charges were framed against Mr. Gharat. On July 27, 2001, Mr. Gharat was acquitted and the case was dormant against Mr. Kamble.
Witness turns hostile
On July 14, 2018, a non-bailable warrant was issued against Mr. Kamble and he was arrested. During the trial, one of the four witnesses examined by the prosecution turned hostile. The court held that the prosecution could not prove that Mr. Kamble and Mr. Gharat had killed Pednekar and had destroyed the evidence.