The Bombay High Court on Tuesday upheld the conviction of two men involved in a 2010 firing targeting Asif Khan, an alleged member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang. The attack, which took place at Phool Gali on JJ Marg on February 13, 2010, claimed the lives of Shakeel Modak, the personal secretary of Congress leader Bhai Jagtap, and Khan’s friend Irfan Qureshi, while Khan managed to escape with injuries. Three others were injured in the attack.
The assailants, Mohd Ali Jaan Mohd Shaikh, 34, and Pranay Rane alias Nana, were convicted by a special court on April 25, 2022. Both were alleged to have links with the Chhota Rajan gang.
A division bench comprising Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Dr Neela Gokhale upheld the special court's ruling, calling it a “well-reasoned and legally sound decision”. The bench noted that the evidence presented clearly established the accused's guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
Defense lawyer Nitin Sejpal had questioned the testimony of Khan, who was an eyewitness as well as the complainant in the case. Sejpal also questioned the delay in conducting the test identification parade. The special public prosecutor, Pradeep Gharat, however, justified the delay, asserting that due procedure was followed throughout the investigation.
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The bench accepted the testimony of the eyewitness, observing that “injury to the witness is an inbuilt guarantee of his presence at the scene of the crime and because the witness will not want to let his actual assailant go unpunished merely to falsely implicate a third party for the commission of the offense.”
The bench noted that Khan, as an eyewitness, had given a graphic description of the entire incident.
The bench further remarked that the case had four eyewitnesses whose testimony the trial court had found corroborative and reliable. Consequently, the division bench upheld the trial court’s observations as compelling and stated that they did not warrant interference.
