India News | Court Acquits Four in 2022 Murder of Lawyer in Jalna
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. A court in Maharashtra's Jalna district acquitted four persons accused of murdering a 26-year-old lawyer, citing weak investigation by the police and inconsistencies in the medical report.
Jalna, Mar 4 (PTI) A court in Maharashtra's Jalna district acquitted four persons accused of murdering a 26-year-old lawyer, citing weak investigation by the police and inconsistencies in the medical report.
Principal District and Sessions Court judge Varsha Mohite on Monday acquitted the accused, Manisha Lokhande, Ganesh Aglave, Vikas Mhaske and Subash Patole.
According to the prosecution, the victim, Kiran Lokhande, was killed by his wife, Manisha, and her paramour, Aglave, on August 31, 2022.
The prosecution claimed that the accused gave the victim sleeping pills and then electrocuted him at a house.
The duo left the body in the house and moved to a hotel in Pune, and later gave Rs 1 lakh to the other two accused to dispose of the body, they said.
When they were unable to dispose of the body, the accused faked a story the victim had died in a fire caused by a gas leak in the house, the prosecution said.
Manisha, who was married to the victim, met Aglave on social media, and they entered into a relationship.
Manisha later turned approver in the case, informing the court that she had no role in the crime.
The court rejected her statement.
The judge, however, noted serious inconsistencies in the medical evidence, with one report suggesting that the victim died due to burns and the post-mortem examination indicating that he was murdered before being burned.
This contradiction and investigative lapses led the court to conclude that the case was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
Defence lawyer Javed Shaikh argued that the prosecution failed to establish both the motive and the sequence of events leading up to Kiran Lokhande's death.
He also pointed out that the case was registered six days after the incident.
Government pleader Bharat Khandekar said the order would be challenged in the High Court.
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)