Shiv Sena leader's murder: Four sentenced to life by Thane court in Maharashtra

A court in Maharashtras Thane district has sentenced four persons to life imprisonment in connection with the 2014 Shiv Sena leader murder case reported the PTIAdditional special judge A N Sirsikar convicted the accused of charges under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code but dismissed charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act MCOC Act and Arms Act according to the PTIA copy of the order dated June 18 was made available on SaturdayThe court also acquitted three others in the caseThe court sentenced Chandrakant alias Pintya Balaram Mhaskar 39 Gangaram alias Gangya Atmaram Linge 44 Yogesh Narayan Raut 45 and Ajay alias Ajya Gajanan Gurav 37 to life imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 5000 Defaulting the payment will attract three months of rigorous imprisonment as per the PTIMohan Raut the deputy chief of the Shiv Senas Badlapur City unit was gunned down at his office on the night of May 23 2014 He was rushed to Dhanvantari Hospital and later to AIMS Hospital in Dombivli where he was declared deadThe judge while dismissing charges against the accused under the MCOCA noted that the existence of an organised crime syndicate was not provedAlthough the offence is committed in a brutal manner in my opinion it cannot be termed as a rarest of rare case the judge noted according to the PTIThe court acquitted Nilesh alias Nitya Bapu Jadhav 38 Pravin Parshuram Morge 44 and Ramesh Baban Masne 43 of all charges due to insufficient evidence the news agency reported on SaturdayHawker jailed for 7 years for attacking civic official during antiencroachment drive in ThaneMeanwhile a court in Maharashtras Thane city on Friday sentenced a hawker to seven years in jail for attacking a woman civic official during an antiencroachment drive in the city in 2021In his order Additional Sessions Judge AS Bhagwat said the prosecution had proved all charges including attempt to murder against the convict Amarjitsingh Shivshankar Yadav alias Amarjit Yadav beyond reasonable doubt as per the PTIDuring the trial Special Public Prosecutor Shishir Hirey told the court that Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kalpita Pimple was leading a drive to clear encroachment in August 2021 when Yadav attacked her with a sharp object severing her three fingersHirey said that if Pimple had not raised her hands to protect herself the attack might have proved fatal Yadav had also threatened the other members of the civic body team including Pimples security guard and assaulted some of them he told the courtThe court examined 21 witnesses during the trialHirey indicated he might appeal for a longer sentenceAfter reading the full judgment we will decide our further course of action However prima facie the sentence of seven years for the crime is insufficient he saidwith PTI inputs