Mumbai: The Thane Sessions Court has acquitted four men arrested by the Shil Daighar Police in 2022 on charges of murder and destruction of evidence, observing that the prosecution failed to establish even the basic ingredients required to prove the case.
The accused — including two cousins of the deceased — had been charged dor allegedly conspiring to murder 32-year-old Mangesh Maruti Patil over an alleged dispute regarding ancestral property.
Prosecution Claims And Alleged Conspiracy
According to the prosecution, Patil, a resident of Waklan village, was reported missing on April 14, 2022. Investigators later claimed that cousins Akshay and Ajinkya Patil hired two co-accused for Rs 50,000 to execute the killing.
The deceased was allegedly taken from a cricket ground to Ulhasnagar and subsequently to a remote Murbad forested area, where he was strangled and his throat slit before being buried.
The police claimed that the body, weapons, clothes, CCTV footage from a hotel, and Call Detail Records (CDRs) supported the conspiracy and murder charges.
Court Cites Glaring Gaps And Acquits Accused
However, the court found glaring gaps in the prosecution’s case. It held that the prosecution had failed to establish motive, noting that investigators had cited three different and unrelated motives, none of which were conclusively proved.
Crucial forensic links were also missing — the allegedly recovered murder weapons were not shown to be blood-stained, weakening the chain of evidence.
Further, the court ruled that the prosecution failed to prove last-seen theory, CDR corroboration, medical and forensic linkage, and most importantly, prior meeting of minds, which is essential to establish premeditated conspiracy.
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“The prosecution’s evidence failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt,” the court concluded, acquitting all four men.
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