In another twist to the matka king Suresh Bhagat murder case, the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday caught a woman red-handed giving Rs1 crore bribe to a friend of an accused in the murder case.
In another twist to the matka king Suresh Bhagat murder case, the Mumbai crime branch on Wednesday caught a woman red-handed giving Rs1 crore bribe to a friend of an accused in the murder case.
The woman, Asha Bhat, sister of prime accused Jaya Chheda, was giving money to a friend of Kiran Pujari, another accused in the case, to take back his application of becoming an approver in the case, the police said.
According to the police, Pujari who is facing trial in the Bhagat murder case, along with Jaya and six others, had filed an application in the sessions court on Monday saying that he wanted to turn an approver in the case.
“Following Pujari’s application, Jaya through her sister Asha had approached Rahul Kurtadkar, a friend of Pujari and offered to pay Rs1 crore to Pujari to take back his application,” said a crime branch officer.
Rahul, the officer further said, immediately approached senior police inspector (Unit 1) Ramesh Mahale, who decided to lay a trap. “Accordingly, Asha was asked to come to the Aaram Guest House near the CST railway station on Wednesday evening to hand over the cash to Rahul,” the officer said.
At around 6.15pm, Asha came to the decided spot with Rs1 crore in cash and while she was attempting to hand it over to Rahul, a team of police officers caught her red-handed. “Asha was arrested for attempting to bribe an accused and hampering the trial. She will be produced before the court on Thursday for remand,” the police officer said.
Incidentally, it was the same day, when Pujari’s application to become an approver was being heard in the sessions court and during the hearing, lawyer of another accused Suhar Roge informed the court that Pujari was using pressure tactics. The lawyer alleged that Pujari had demanded Rs25 lakh but since the amount was not given to him, he decided to become an approver.
Suresh Bhagat was killed in a road accident on June 13, 2008 near Panvel. Initially an accident case was registered but later it transpired that it was not an accident but a planned murder.
Following the revelation, the Mumbai crime branch arrested 8 accused, including Bhagat’s wife Jaya and chargesheeted them.
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