The crime branch of Mumbai police said on Sunday it had proof that two lawyers, associated with the Neeraj Grover murder case, had been in contact with the two persons arrested on charges of threatening a prosecution witness.
According to the police, Munshi Yadav and Raju Wankhede — the arrested duo — had gone to panch witness Usha Ramalu’s residence on September 5. They told her not to depose against Kannada actor Maria Susairaj — prime accused in the case.
Rakesh Maria, joint commissioner of police (crime), said that the first information report (FIR), filed by Ramalu, accused Yadav of coming to her house and asking her not to say anything against Susairaj in court. “She (Ramalu) said that Yadav took her to Wankhede, who was waiting outside her house. The witness further claimed that she was later made to speak to Raja Thakur, the actor’s lawyer, over mobile phone,” Maria said.
Crime branch sources said that initially the duo tried to bribe Ramalu. When she refused, they threatened her. Ramalu lodged a complaint at Goregaon police station, and Wankhede was arrested the same day. Yadav, who had fled, was arrested on September 8.
“Going through Wankhede’s call records, we found that he and Thakur spoke to each other nearly 40 times in 10 days before Ramalu was approached. The records showed that Murty Acharya (another lawyer of Susairaj), too, had spoken to Wankhede 10 times over the phone,” said Maria.
DNA tried to contact both Thakur and Acharya several times, but neither was available for comments.
A crime branch source said that Yadav had expressed his willingness to make a confessional statement before the magistrate, under section 164 of the CrPC. He had earlier been arrested in 1993, on charges of murder. Wankhede, however, has no past record in crime.
Acharya was the lawyer on record for Susairaj. Her counsel was Sudeep Pasbola, whose junior was Thakur. Both Acharya and Pasbola withdrew from the case after Ramalu lodged her complaint with the police.
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