Nine persons were arrested for allegedly murdering an eatery owner in Naigaon in Palghar district of Maharashtra, a police official said on Friday, reported the PTI.

On August 3, Ajit Yadav, `dhaba` owner was attacked with sticks, plastic chairs etc during an argument over mobile phone theft, and he died while undergoing treatment at a nearby hospital, the Mira-Bhayander Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police official said.

“Using CCTV footage, technical analysis etc, we arrested all nine persons allegedly involved in the crime within 48 hours. They have been held from locations like Jogeshwari and Goregaon in Mumbai and Nalasopara in Palghar. Some of them were planning to flee to Uttar Pradesh,” the official said, according to the PTI.

Thane court acquits man accused of killing woman, attempting suicide

Meanwhile, in an another incident, a court in Maharashtra`s Thane district has acquitted a 42-year-old man, who was accused of stabbing a woman to death and attempting suicide in 2019, citing that the prosecution had failed to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt, as per the PTI.

Principal District and Sessions Judge S B Agrawal on Wednesday acquitted Kundan Harekrishan Aacharya, booked under sections 302 (murder) and 309 (attempt to commit suicide) of the Indian Penal Code.

A copy of the order was made available on Friday.

The prosecution has alleged that on the afternoon of October 22, 2019, Aacharya attacked the victim, Ankita Rawal, with a knife at his shop in Bhayander East, and then attempted to take his own life by slitting his throat.

It contended that Aacharya and Rawal were having an affair, and he had insisted on marrying her.

According to the PTI, the defence, however, argued that it was Rawal who first attacked Aacharya and then killed herself, and no one had witnessed what transpired inside the shop.

Judge Agrawal noted that the prosecution`s case rested solely on circumstantial evidence, as there were no eyewitnesses to the incident inside the shop, and pointed out that the accused did not dispute his presence at the scene but offered an alternative version of events.

He further cited that the deceased woman`s father did not corroborate the love affair narrative, and only stated that the accused harassed his daughter for marriage, while the mother had changed her previous statement to the police about the affair and claimed that the victim was threatened.

The court also noted that medical officer Dr Rohit Singh, who treated Aacharya`s neck injury, admitted that the wound could have been inflicted by a third person, while the doctor, who conducted the post-mortem, did not find any defensive injuries on the victim, reported the PTI.

It concluded that the prosecution failed to prove its case “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

“It is not made out beyond a reasonable doubt that it was the accused who assaulted victim first and then injured himself, or anything else happened within those four walls,” the judge said, the news agency reported.

(with PTI inputs)

Source