Two 40-yr-old cases among 5,157 settled in Lok Adalat

Nagpur: The National Lok Adalat on Saturday settled two peculiar cases which were impending in criminal court since past 40 years. The cases registered then revolved around theft of gold worth little money today.
As many as 67 panels, consisting of one judge, one lawyer and a social activist each, looked after the running of public court and settled a total of 5,157 cases including 1,097 civil and criminal cases, 43 land acquisition cases and 4,060 other disputed cases. Total settlement revenue collected was Rs17.78 crore, including Rs 3.33 crore from motor vehicle claims and Rs 2.04 crore from cheque bounce cases.

Family court also settled 86 family disputes. Twenty-one couples reconciled out of total 31 who appeared and 25 couples were disposed off.

The first case settled involved extortion of gold chain by a fraudulent make-belief tantrik. The courts granted relief to the tantrik after the family dropped all charges. Back in 1980, a resident of Wanjari Nagar, Sonabai Tamshetwar registered a case of cheating against Umar Sheikh after he allegedly posed as a tantrik baba and stole a gold chain worth Rs600 from her house then.

While the case was going on, Sheikh was on the run and Sonabai passed away, leaving the case to be pursued by her son. On Saturday at Lok Adalat, Tamshetwar’s sons dropped all the charges and rested the 38-year-old case.

A similar case was also settled, where charges of gold burglary against Siddharth Waghmare were dropped after 40 years of its registration. In 1978, government through Tehsil Police Station registered an offence under IPC section 378 against Waghmare after he stole 100 gms of gold worth Rs 800 then from a gold shop in rural region. Waghmare was absconding since the registration of the case. His charges were however were dropped on Saturday by the government, thus bringing an end to the case.

Another panel settled a 31-year-old impending case against Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) registered by Vaman Patharabe in 1987 regarding his land that was acquired at Golibaar Square, Pachpaoli road. According to the report, Pathrabe had asked for compensation in lieu of his land acquired by NIT for road widening.

The District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) of Nagpur under the aegis of National Legal Service Authority (NLSA), New Delhi, and Maharashtra State Legal Service Authority, Mumbai, undertook district wide Lok Adalat 2018 on Saturday which was presided by administrative judge of Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court RK Deshpande and principal district judge Shashikant Sawale.