The Bombay High Court sought original cell phone records of president Pratibha Patil's brother GN Patil and four others in Vishram Patil murder case.
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought original cell phone records of president Pratibha Patil's brother GN Patil and four others in Vishram Patil murder case.
Vishram Patil's widow, Rajni Patil, has moved the court seeking to make G N Patil an accused in the case.
The division bench of chief justice Swatanter Kumar and justice DY Chandrachud reserved the judgement, but called for certain documents and records.
The state will have to submit original phone records of GN Patil, his associates Ulhas Patil and Ramesh Chaudhary and two of the accused, namely, Damodar Lokhande and Leeladhar Narkhede.
Court also sought recordings of statements given by accused Raju Mali and Raju Sonawane to the police, and reports of their narco tests.
Rajni's case is that her husband was killed by men hired by GN Patil. Both Vishram and GN Patil were Jalgaon Congress leaders, and murder was fall-out of political rivalry, she alleges in petition.
But CBI has concluded the probe, and given a clean chit to GN Patil.
Court on Wednesday heavily came down upon police inspector NS Bhuke of Jalgaon crime branch, who initially probed the case, for not recording Rajni's statement.
Bhuke had questioned GN Patil and ten others on September 21, 2005, the day of murder, as Rajni had named them as suspects.
But surprisingly, Rajni's own statement was never recorded. Police's excuse was that she wasn't mentally fit, immediately after the murder, to give a statement.
"Why did the police then question these persons based on her allegations?" the court asked.
Bhuke had recorded in the case diary that there were calls made from G N Patil to Raju Mali, the alleged actual killer on the day of murder.
But CBI (which took over the probe later) told the High Court that no such calls were traced.
At the last hearing, Rajni's lawyer Mahesh Jethmalani had produced dying declaration of accused Mali. (Mali died in custody in 2007.)
Declaration said that Mali had been instructed by GN Patil to kill Vishram.
Court has adjourned hearing till Thursday for further directions.
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