21 November,2013 01:41 AM IST | | A Correspondent
Additional Sessions Judge VK Shewale yesterday concluded hearing in the Santosh Mane case. Mane was asked to put forward his statement on the sentence, but he refused to speak. Shewale observed that Mane was intentionally not coming on record.
On October 25, the defendant's lawyer Dhananjay Mane had submitted a plea to refer the former state transport bus driver to psychiatrist or clinical psychologists, claiming that Santosh was not in a state to make a statement on the sentence.
This followed four doctors from Regional mental hospital to conduct medical test on Mane. The team of doctors said that Mane was suffering from anxiety and sleeplessness and was prescribed minor anti-depressants for two weeks.
Additional Judge expressed displeasure about defense lawyer having prolonged judicial proceeding by stating Mane's mental illness.
On September 21 divisional bench of Mumbai High court while setting aside the death sentence awarded to Mane had observed that no effective hearing took place on sentence.
Mane is not on terror radar
Reacting on a letter sent by jail authorities, the court observed that Santosh Mane was not being targeted by terrorists. Prison officials had said that escorting Mane to court and back was putting pressure on security.u00a0
