The special court, hearing the cases against incarcerated gangster Chhota Rajan, has acquitted two alleged members of his gang booked for the murder of cable operator Sanjay Gupta from Nerul, New Mumbai, in March 2005. The trial against Rajan himself is pending as the court rejected the closure report filed by the CBI, which took over the case.
The acquitted Rajan gang members are Jayant Mule, 65, and Santosh Bhosale, 43, both from Chembur. The court observed that there is no medical evidence that Gupta’s death was homicidal.
According to the prosecution’s case, three assailants had barged into Gupta’s shop on March 21, 2005 in the afternoon and shot at him. He later succumbed to bullet injuries. His brother and wife claimed that Pradeep Madgaonkar alias Bandya Mama ran Abhay Vision, a cable service outfit.
The family claimed that Madgaonkar was trying to take over Gupta’s cable connections and was annoyed that the latter had formed a group of cable operators against Rajan and his aides. To gain supremacy in the area, Madgaonkar, Rajan and his organised crime syndicate allegedly got Gupta killed.
The prosecution had examined nine witnesses, but apart from Gupta’s brother no one supported the prosecution’s case. The brother testified that days before the firing, the accused had visited Gupta’s office and said that Rajan was very angry with him and had asked him to apologise. He claimed that the matter was settled nearly a week later after Gupta received a call from Rajan
However, the court said that the brother’s testimony is not enough to prove the case. Besides, it was brought on record that after the investigation, the police bid to invoke the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act was rejected.
