Court acquits five men accused of killing villager in Thane district

A court in Maharashtra’s Thane district acquitted five persons accused of attacking and killing a man at a village in Bhiwandi taluka. Additional sessions judge P M Gupta in his order held that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against the alleged accused who were residents of Payegaon village.

On Sunday, a copy of the order from October 3 was made accessible. Around seven in the morning on July 9, 2011, the alleged defendant allegedly attacked the victim Sadanand Devlikar with iron rods and knives. The man suffered serious injuries and was later pronounced dead in a medical facility.

The judge in his order rejected the deposition of the victim’s widow citing that it was not trustworthy. He noted that the crime was reported to the police nearly two hours after it occurred, though the informant and other prosecution witnesses had mobile phones and had contacted each other to pass on information about the incident.