Man gets lifer for murder; 5 others acquitted

MUMBAI: The Sessions Court at Sewree, however, acquitted the neighbour and four other accused in the six-year-old case due to lack of evidence.
 
Additional Judge P R Belorkar also imposed a fine of Rs 2,000 on Santosh Pawar, who was found guilty of conspiring and murdering one Blakrishna Shinge in 2002.
 
The neighbour, Pandurang Karambale and the other accused - Jaydeep More, Sudesh Jadhav, Prasad Shetty and Nirmal Thakur - were let-off after the prosecution failed to prove its case against them.
 
Shinge, employed with Bombay Dyeing, had been in charge of the developmental work of his residential building at Kala Chowk. While most of the occupants agreed to the work carried by the developers under Shinge's supervision, Karambale often fought with the deceased over the issue.
 
Karambale told the police said that along with the development work, Shinge also played foul game and tried tampering with the signatures and attempted to sell the land.
 
According to the prosecution, Karambale hired More and paid him Rs 3 lakh to kill Shinge. More, in turn, engaged Jadhav and Pawar to kill Shinge. On May 6, 2002 Pawar fatally shot Shinge on his chest with a country-made revolver.
 
Though all the accused confessed to police to their respective roles, they later retracted their statements in the court claiming they were recorded under duress.