Mumbai Jan 29 PTI The Bombay High Court has acquitted a 21-year-old man who was handed life imprisonment by a sessions court for killing a woman in 2017 observing that the evidence given by a child witness is demonstrably unreliable and insufficient for convicting the accused on the charge of murder A bench of justices SS Shinde and Milind Jadhav also held that the probe conducted by the police in the case was seriously questionable and deserves to be reprimanded with strictures The bench acquitted the man on January 27 A detailed order was made available on Saturday The accused identified as Ganesh Mandavkar a resident of Raigad district in Maharashtra was handed life imprisonment by a sessions court for murdering a woman by strangulation He had challenged the courts order before the Bombay High Court Advocate Ashish Satpute appointed by the high court from the Legal Aid Panel to represent the accused had submitted that the investigation by the police to unearth the evidence in the case was improper and inadequate He further argued that the sessions courts verdict was based on mere conjectures without appreciating the facts and circumstantial evidence on record As per the prosecution the accused had killed the woman in 2017 after she refused his demand for sexual favours Mandavkar allegedly strangled the woman with a towel while another accused who died during the pendency of the trial held the victims legs A six-year-old child had allegedly witnessed the incident as per the prosecution The bench said the witness had stated that the spot of the incident is at a walking distance of about 10 minutes which if roughly translated into the distance as the crow flies would be about 1 to 15 kilometres From such a long distance it would have been impossible for this minor six-year-old to witness the alleged incident This witness has specifically deposed that the deceased was at a far distance and that the site of the incident was not visible from that distance This statement militates against the theory of this witness being an eyewitness to the incident the bench said The evidence given by the child witness is demonstrably unreliable does not inspire any confidence and is in any case insufficient for convicting the Appellant of the offence under Section 302 IPC the bench said Further questioning the probe conducted by the police the high court held that the investigating officer has not recorded the statements andor brought forth the relevant parties as prosecution witnesses Such investigation smacks of complete incompetence and therefore deserves to be reprimanded with strictures it added The bench held that the trial court has erroneously arrived at a conclusion that the evidence given by witnesses corroborate each other on material particulars and shows that the accused had killed the woman PTI AVI NSK NSK

Mumbai Jan 25 PTI Almost 15 years after Shilpa Shetty landed in an obscenity case when Hollywood star Richard Gere kissed her on her cheeks at a public event the actress was discharged from the case by a Mumbai court which observed that she seems to be the victim of the act of Gere A court of metropolitan magistrate Ketki Chavan discharged Shetty on January 18 A detailed order was made available on Monday In 2007 Gere and Shetty had come together for an AIDS awareness programme in Rajasthan On the stage Gere kissed the actress on her cheeks causing a stir in the country It seems that the accused Shilpa Shetty is the victim of the alleged act of accused no 1 Richard Gere Not a single element of any of the alleged offence is being satisfied in the complaint the court said in the order The kissing incident had evoked strong protests in several cities in India Following complaints cases were registered against both Gere and Shetty under various sections of the Indian Penal Code IPC and the Information Technology Act for obscenity The case was transferred to Mumbai from the court of magistrate first class in Rajasthan on the orders of the Supreme Court in 2017 In its order the Mumbai court held that none of the news reports annexed to the complaint demonstrated common intention The allegation against Shetty is that she did not protest when she was kissed by the co-accused Gere This by no stretch of imagination makes her a conspirator or perpetrator of any crime the order said PTI AVI NSK NSK

Mumbai Dec 18 PTI A court of the chief metropolitan magistrate CMM here on Saturday rejected Bollywood actor Kangana Ranauts plea seeking transfer of her extortion complaint against veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar out of the magistrates court in suburban Andheri Ranaut had filed a counter complaint against Akhtar who is pursuing a criminal defamation case against her In her complaint before the magistrate court Ranaut had accused Akhtar of extortion and criminal intimidation The actor through her lawyer Rizwan Siddiquee had approached the CMM for transferring this case saying she lost faith in the magistrate court In her petition Ranaut had claimed that the court of the metropolitan magistrate had indirectly threatened her of issuing a warrant if she failed to appear before it in a bailable offence In October the CMM court had rejected her plea seeking transfer of the defamation case filed by Akhtar against her to another court The court had held that the Andheri metropolitan magistrate hearing the defamation case against Ranaut acted judiciously and hasnt shown any bias against the actor Akhtar 76 had filed a complaint in the Andheri court in November last year claiming that Ranaut had made defamatory statements against him in a television interview which allegedly damaged his reputation PTI AVI NSK NSK

Mumbai Nov 17 PTI Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday moved a petition before the Bombay High Court seeking quashing of the defamation case filed against him by a BJP supporter for the formers commander-in-thief remark targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi The complainant Mahesh Shrishrimal had stated that this remark was made by Rahul Gandhi while attacking the prime minister in 2018 over the Rafale fighter jet deal After taking cognizance of the complaint a magistrates court in Mumbai had issued summons to Rahul Gandhi in October 2019 The former Congress president has not appeared in person so far before the magistrate The petition to quash the defamation case was filed before Justice S K Shinde of the Bombay high court by Rahul Gandhis lawyer Kushal Mor stating that the said remark was made against the prime minister and the complainant is not the aggrieved party Shrishrimal had stated that Rahul Gandhis statement had hurt the sentiments of the supporters of the prime minister Rahul Gandhi had not only defamed the PM but also members of BJP he had claimed The high court has posted the matter for hearing on November 22 PTI AVI NSK NSK