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Aditya Ranka murder: Cousin acquitted, friend is convicted

The police had claimed that the two accused were into betting on Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, and having lost money on bets, they kidnapped the teenager and demanded ransom from his family to pay off their debts.

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The Sessions Court on Monday convicted Vrijesh Sanghvi, 29, who was arrested in May 2013 for kidnapping and murdering South Mumbai-based diamond broker Jitendra Ranka's 13-year old son Aditya. The court, however, acquitted cousin of the deceased, who the police claimed was the alleged brain behind the crime, on the grounds of lack of sufficient evidence.

The police had claimed that the two accused were into betting on Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, and having lost money on bets, they kidnapped the teenager and demanded ransom from his family to pay off their debts.

The court presided by the principal judge SB Agarwal is yet to decide on the quantum of sentence, arguments on which will be heard on Wednesday. Special Public Prosecutor Kalpana Chavan said that Sanghvi is the one who had executed the murder and was held guilty of charges of kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence. "The crime committed was of a serious nature. He killed the very child with whom he used to play," Chavan said.

She added, "The prosecution is definitely going to seek for life sentencing till his natural death."

Following the verdict, the prosecution blamed the police for what it called a `shoddy probe'. "It was a very difficult case for the prosecution to prove as the police had done shoddy work. The police had made some obvious and silly mistakes which had made the case fall flat. I took a lot of efforts to make this case stand and finally achieved a conviction at least for the person who committed the crime," added Chavan.

In May 2013, the VP Road police had arrested two MBA professionals - Sanghvi and Himanshu Ranka, 32, on charges of kidnapping and murder of Aditya. The police had claimed that Aditya's cousin, Himanshu, was the alleged mastermind of the crime, while Sanghvi executed the murder.

The duo, claimed the police, wanted to make a quick buck by betting on IPL cricket matches. Himanshu had lost Rs 3 lakh in betting and in order to pay off the debt, Aditya was kidnapped and ransom was demanded from his family.

According to the police, Himanshu, who lived opposite Aditya's house, called him on the landline telephone and offered to take him out for a spin in a Honda City borrowed by his friend Sanghvi from another person. While Sanghvi took the boy, Himanshu stayed back to keep a tab on Aditya's father Jitendra, the police had claimed.

When he received a call demanding a ransom of Rs 30 lakh, Jitendra, along with Himanshu, approached the VP Road police station. Sensing trouble, Himanshu informed Sanghvi about the police investigating the matter. The two panicked and decided to kill the boy, the prosecution had argued.

According to the prosecution, Aditya was stabbed to death and his body was burnt near Amba river. The accused then stuffed the body in the car and threw it in a secluded spot on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway beyond Panvel. the prosecution claimed. Aditya's sandal, which was recovered from Sanghvi's car led to the case being cracked, the police had said after the arrests.

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