The Dindoshi sessions court on Wednesday handed out life sentences to five persons for kidnapping and killing a builder from Borivali in 2012. Nitin Dhakan, 46, was kidnapped on April 26 that year and beaten to death over a property deal. The accused took his body to Manor forest in Palghar and burnt it using petrol.
The key accused
The key accused, Gopal Pande, a real estate broker, died during the trial. Others held guilty are Harun Shaikh, Birbal Singh, Brijesh Mishra, Abhijeet Bhosale and Sachin Chorge. The special public prosecutor Vaibhav Baghade examined 31 witnesses and demanded death penalty.
As per the prosecution case, at the centre of the case was a 13,288 sq ft plot of land in Saibaba Nagar in Borivali, owned by one Jayram and Mahadev Mahale, who had died leaving behind 32 legal heirs. Pande posed as Jayram and struck fake deals with several builders, taking token money from them. He struck one such deal with Dhakan as well for Rs5 crore and took Rs1.11 lakh as token amount.
Details of incident
On the day of the incident, Dhakan had gone to meet Pande but did not return. His wife lodged a missing complaint the next day, on April 27. Meanwhile, Dhakan’s brother-in-law received information that Dhakan’s car had met with an accident but the builder was nowhere to be found. Dhakan’s wife then lodged a kidnapping case.
In June 2012, the crime branch arrested six persons in another case and found that Dhakan had been killed by them. During interrogation, the men disclosed the spot where they disposed of Dhakan’s body. The burnt remains were recovered and sent for forensic examination. The DNA report confirmed that the remains were of the builder.
MCOCA invoked
It was also revealed that the accused, after killing him, posed as an architect’s employees and went to his residence from where they stole Rs45,000 and his credit card with which they shopped for clothes. Later, the watchman of Dhakan’s residential building and the shopkeeper from where they bought clothes identified them.
The police invoked the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) as the accused turned out to be history sheeters. Later, however, the charges under MCOCA were dropped and they were prosecuted for murder.
