Kareena Eugene
In a recent order, a Session’s Court, released gangster Uday Pathak who was booked on charges of attempt to murder of a ‘co-accused turned approver’ in the 2011 Kurar quadruple murder case at the Court premises in the year 2017.
After the man, who was alleged to have been attacked in the Mumbai city civil and Session’s Court corridor, turned hostile, Pathak was cleared of all the charges against him.
Pathak is facing multiple charges including the one in 2011, after the victim’s partially charred, naked bodies were found in Kurar, North Mumbai. One of the accused, Kalpesh Patel, sought to become an approver against Pathak and the co-accused.
On the 8th of June 2017, the Colaba Police claimed that Pathak was brought along with the other accused undertrials to the Session Court for their trial hearing.
They also claimed that, Pathak had assaulted Patel in the corridor with an iron sheet outside court room number 17, causing injuries to Patel’s right cheek.
The Police also claimed that Pathak had assaulted the accompanying Police men on a scuffle that took place afterwards, causing damage to a personnel’s uniform and spectacles.
During the trial, Patel told the Court that somebody had hit him on the face with an iron sheet but, did not identify the person to be Pathak. However, the prosecution declared Patel to be hostile, as the initial statement, given by him, to the Police was that Pathak had attacked him.
The prosecution said that, the scuffle had happened after Patel’s Plea to turn approver in another case.
The Court said that, apart from one Police Constable, who said he had seen Pathak attack Patel, no other witnesses, including the other Police men present there, have asserted about the injuries sustained by Patel, but did not see Pathak assault him.
The Court states, “Upon scrutiny of entire evidence on record, it appears to me that the injured P.W.6-Kalpesh Narendra Patel has himself turned hostile. It is pertinent to note there is no evidence on behalf of the prosecution that at the time of the incident, the accused assaulted and used criminal force to police officers…while they were discharging their duties as public officers. Moreover, there is no evidence on record to show that the accused voluntarily caused hurt to the police officers…”
Pathak was released on charges under the Sections 307, 352 and 332 of the IPC. However, he will remain in jail for the Kurar murder case.
He is also facing over ten other cases, including a case registered last year, for being involved in an extortion call and a firing case at Malad at a medical shop and a jewellery store.