Mumbai court acquits man accused in 34-year-old kidnapping case

A court in Mumbai has acquitted a 62yearold man accused of kidnapping a businessman in 1989 as the prosecution failed to trace the victim as well as other witnesses in the case and prove the charges against him reported news agency PTIAccording to PTI additional sessions judge Sunil U Hake acquitted the accused Abhay Uskaikar who was out on bail of all charges in the order passed on May 17The prosecution had examined three witnesses and in spite of repeated issuance of summons the prosecution could not secure the presence of other witnesses the court saidUskaikar was facing trial for offences punishable under various Indian Penal Code sections including 365 kidnaping and 392 robberyAlso Read Eight decades on Bombay HC directs Maha govt to hand over two south Mumbai flats to 93yearold ownerAs per the prosecution Uskaikar along with three others armed with weapons kidnapped businessman Mohammad Reza Hussain in a car in April 1989 from Colaba area of south Mumbai and they forcibly obtained the latters signatures on a partnership deed reported PTIThe charges in the case were framed by the court in November 2022 and the trial began in March this yearThe court said there is no evidence on record to show that Uskaikar hatched a criminal conspiracy along with the three absconding accusedThere is also no evidence to show that Uskaikar in furtherance of a common intention with the absconding accused kidnapped Hussain and committed extortion it saidThe prosecution could not secure the presence of other witnesses Matter is quite old The informant complainant and Hussain could not be found on the given address Therefore the evidence for the prosecution is closed the court said reported PTIThe prosecution failed to prove all the charges levelled against Uskaikar the court said while acquitting himThe trial against the three other accused in the case will continue it addedMeanwhile on Wednesday a sessions court in Mumbai has acquitted a 22yearold student who was arrested for setting afire the premises of another court and causing damage to the property observing that the prosecution failed to prove the case against himIn his order passed last month Additional Sessions Judge A A Kulkarni let off Omkar Pawar and said the prosecution had claimed that the alleged incident occurred in broad daylight but it did not examine any witness who might have seen the accused at the spotIn such circumstances I am of the opinion that evidence of prosecution is not sufficient to conclude that prosecution has proved that accused set fire in the premises of Girgaon court and caused damage to the property the court saidAs per the prosecution the assistant superintendent of Metropolitan Magistrate Court Girgaon had on June 19 2021 received a call about a fire on the premisesThe fire destroyed certain areas of the building including the cash section and the videoconferencing unit said the prosecutionThe Girgaon police began a probe after the assistant superintendent filed a complaintCCTV footage of the spot showed a person moving suspiciouslyLater police received information from a hospital about a patient with burn injuries leading to the arrest of Omkar Pawar in relation to the arsonWith inputs from PTI