Matka king murder case: Six including wife, son convicted
MUMBAI: A sessions court on Friday convicted six accused in the murder case of matka-king Suresh Bhagat, including his wife and son.
According to prosecution, the motive behind the murder was that
Bhagat's wife Jaya and son Hitesh wanted to usurp his property and take
over his multi-crore gambling business.
Bhagat, along with five
others, was killed, in pursuance to a conspiracy, on Alibaug-Pen road
on June 13, 2008, when a truck collided with his Scorpio.
Later, police found that the accident had been orchestrated by his wife
and others, for taking over the matka business, and they had hired Suhas
Roge to do the job.
The Mumbai crime branch had arrested eight
persons - Suhas Roge, Harish Mandvekar, Kiran Amle, Shaikh Azimuddin,
Pravin Shetty, Jaya Bhagat, Hitesh Bhagat and Kiran Pujari - in
connection with the case and booked them under Maharashtra Control of
Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
However, in April 2009, the special MCOCA
court dropped the stringent Act after the defence lawyers argued that
there were no previous cases against their client - which is an
important ingredient for applying MCOCA in the case.
Later,
Kiran Pujari and Shaikh Azimuddin sought to become approvers in the case
and the court directed a magistrate to record their confessions.
Pujari, in his confession, said that he had met Jaya at her residence
and Roge had suggested eliminating Bhagat. He said that Jaya had
allegedly said that Bhagat was going to destroy the matka business, and
to this, Roge suggested that a more "permanent" arrangement should be
made.
Chief public prosecutor Kalpana Chavan told the court
that this was a cold blooded murder and examined 80 witnesses to prove
the case.
However, what bolstered the prosecution case was the statement of confession by Pujari and Sheikh.
Sessions judge S G Shete convicted six accused for murder and criminal
conspiracy and the quantum of sentence is likely to be handed over on
July 29. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Matka-king-murder-case-Six-including-wife-son-convicted/articleshow/21366680.cms