Thane: Court acquits five men accused of attacking, killing villager

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A court in Maharashtra's Thane district acquitted five persons accused of attacking and killing a man at a village in Bhiwandi taluka, reported news agency PTI.

Additional sessions judge P M Gupta in his order held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the alleged accused who were residents of Payegaon village. The copy of the order dated October 3 was made available on Sunday, reported PTI.

According to the prosecution, the alleged accused had attacked the victim Sadanand Devlikar with iron rods and knives around 7 am on July 9, 2011. The victim sustained severe injuries and was declared dead at a hospital, reported PTI.

According to PTI, the judge in his order rejected the deposition of the victim's widow citing that it was not trustworthy. He noted that the crime was reported to the police nearly two hours after it occurred, though the informant and other prosecution witnesses had mobile phones and had contacted each other to pass on information about the incident.

There was no immediate motive for the accused persons to commit the crime, the court held while acquitting them, reported PTI.

Meanwhile, two brothers who had been on the run for 29 years after killing a woman and her four children in Maharashtra's Thane district were arrested by the police in Uttar Pradesh, an official told PTI on Monday.

A team of the MBVV police arrested Anil alias Vijay Ramavadh Saroj (48) and his brother Sunil alias Sanjay (47) from the Kirakat area in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, deputy commissioner of police (Crime) Avinash Ambure told PTI.

The duo had been on the run after brutally murdering Jagranidevi (27) and her four children, the youngest who was three months old, at Kashimira in Thane district in 1994, the official told PTI.

The police had nabbed one of the accused in the case in December 2022, while the brothers remained absconding, the official told PTI.

The police had received information that the Saroj brothers were wandering in the villages of Uttar Pradesh by posing as faith healers, the official told PTI.

Based on a tip-off, crime branch officials set up a decoy and some police personnel pretended to be ailing and visited the duo who were camping at a temple in Kirakat and apprehended them on Saturday, the official told PTI.

During interrogation, the duo revealed that they had lived in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab after assuming different identities, and worked in factories, the official told PTI, adding that the duo also obtained Aadhaar and PAN cards under new names.

Earlier in December 2022, the police had nabbed Rajkumar Amarnath Chauhan (41), who had fled to Qatar after committing the crime, the official told PTI.

(With inputs from PTI)