HC says jailor cooked up attack tale, acquits man

The Bombay high court recently acquitted a man who was accused of trying to kill a jailor at Thane Central prison 25 years ago.

Disbelieving the jailor’s testimony, the court held that the police cooked up a story and arrested the suspect wrongly for the crime in 1988 as the jailor had allegedly chastised the accused for getting into a brawl with other inmates while being lodged in the  jail.

Justice RC Chavan, while acquitting Mulund resident Prabhakar Mane, said, “Jailor Bhagwan Jagtap himself said that three shots were fired at him  [Jagtap] with an interval of one second between two shots, which made him flee inside his house. It’s doubtful that he would’ve had enough opportunity to see the miscreants.”

“Jagtap also said that he told about the incident only to another jailor Abhiman Randive.
The latter categorically stating that Jagtap had told him he had been fired at by some unknown miscreants shows that the name of the appellant (Mane) and the other miscreants surfaced after inferences,” Justice Chavan added.

As per the prosecution’s case, on December 12, 1988, when Jagtap was sitting in his official quarters, three assailants fired at him, injuring his hands. It was alleged that three months prior to the firing there had been a commotion inside the prison and he had reprimanded the three accused who, after being released, fired at him.

The police charged the three under section 307 (attempt to murder) of the India Penal Code and some sections of the Arms Act. The trial court in 1989 acquitted two accused but convicted Mane and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment. He then challenged the conviction in high court.

The defence argued that it would have been technically impossible for the victim to see the assailants in such a short period of the incident. Also, after committing the alleged crime, the assailants wouldn’t have waited but tried to flee from the spot, thus reducing the chances of the victim seeing them, the defence added.

It was also argued that the victim had only reported about the incident to another jailor, but the FIR lodged by Randive was prepared by jail superintendent Mehsaram and the complicity of the appellant and the other accused in the assault was possibly a figment of his imagination. The defence added that the attempt to provide a motive to the assault shows that jail authorities were trying to cook something up.

The HC set aside the trial court’s conviction order after going through the entire evidence and taking note of the fact that most witnesses in the case had turned hostile and that there were other contradictions in the prosecution’s story.

Shots of revenge
On December 12, 1988, jailor Bhagwan Jagtap was at his official quarters when three assailants fired at him, injuring his hands.

It was alleged that three months before the incident, the jailor had reprimanded the accused for creating a commotion inside the prison. The jailor alleged that these persons had fired at him to exact revenge.