Deepak Madhavrao Mankar, 3 others acquitted in threat to life case

Senior Congress corporator Deepak Madhavrao Mankar (51) and three more accused on Tuesday were acquitted by judicial magistrate (first class) KP Jain-Desarda of the charges of threatening to kill Shekhar Wambure (53), the then director of Pune Municipal Corporation Servants’ Co-operative Urban Bank.

Wambure, a resident of Dhankavdi, had filed a complaint on February 28, 2007. The Vishrambaug Police had arrested Mankar, Shantaram Dattatray Vaidya (57) of Rajendranagar, Sambhaji Vithhal Jadhav (56) and Prakash Anant Devkar (55) of Bibvewadi under the Indian Penal Code, 1860. Charges were also slapped under the Arms Act, 1959 for threatening Wambure with a revolver.

According to the prosecution, Mankar and his associates threatened to kill Wambure, as he had opposed a decision of the bank’s board of directors to sell a 278-sq ft property owned by the bank in 2007.

However, during the cross examination conducted by Raman Agarwal and Pushkar Durge, Wambure gave contradictory statements before the court, which did not prove the offence.

The judge in her order stated, “There are many contradictions in the complainant’s statement. The four prosecution witnesses did not support the prosecution.”

The judge ordered to cancel bail bond of the accused and directed the police to return Mankar’s revolver, his original revolver licence and a cellphone, which were seized during the probe.