6 months ago
2
A peculiar tribunal successful Beed has rejected the discharge applications of 4 accused successful the execution lawsuit of a sarpanch successful the district.
The accused appeared to beryllium members of an organised transgression syndicate and were progressive successful continuing unlawful activities, Special Judge V.H. Patwadkar of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) tribunal held successful a elaborate bid passed connected November 11.
Santosh Deshmukh, sarpanch of Massajog village, was abducted and killed connected December 9 past twelvemonth for allegedly attempting to halt an extortion bid targeting Avaada Energy Pvt. Ltd., an vigor company.
Eight persons, including premier accused Walmik Baburao Karad – an alleged adjutant of erstwhile Maharashtra Minister and NCP person Dhananjay Munde – were arrested nether the MCOCA, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, and Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) successful the case.
Four accused – Pratik Ghule, Sudhir Sangale, Mahesh Kedar, and Jayram Chate – sought discharge successful the lawsuit nether Section 250 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), alleging governmental vendetta and deficiency of evidence.
The justice held that the “scope of Section 250 of BNSS is precise limited”. “Critical investigation of grounds is not expected astatine this stage. It is lone to beryllium seen whether determination are capable grounds to proceed against the accused,” the tribunal observed.
“Statements of witnesses and different applicable documents prima facie amusement complicity of the applicants/accused successful the said crimes,” the bid stated.
Advocate D.I. Patil, for the 4 applicants, argued they were “falsely implicated owed to governmental motives” and that “no prima facie lawsuit nether the MCOCA is made out”. He maintained that “the alleged transgression syndicate ne'er existed” and challenged the legality of clubbing 3 FIRs into 1 chargesheet.
Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam argued that the accused conspired to extort ₹2 crore from Avaada Energy Pvt. Ltd. to let it to run successful Kaij taluka. When Deshmukh tried to halt the extortion bid, helium was allegedly abducted, brutally assaulted, and his assemblage dumped astatine Daithana Phata, helium said.
‘Will proceed to trial’
The tribunal recovered that 11 superior offences were antecedently registered against the accused and co-accused successful Beed, supporting the exertion of MCOCA.
Rejecting the pleas, the tribunal ruled that the lawsuit volition proceed to trial.
