Witnesses
turn hostile in NRI murder case
VADODARA, Dec. 24m 2005
Tushar Tere TIMES NEWS NETWORK
In a major setback to the police, 24 of 27 witnesses
examined in the sensational NRI murder case of Manoj
Patel have turned hostile in court.
The witnesses went back on their statements one by
one during the 14 hearings, which took place in a
Vadodara court over the last one-and-half year.
Manoj, a US resident was shot dead by two sharpshooters
in Akota area during his visit to India, in April
2004. The police had arrested seven persons in the
case and claimed business rivalry to be the motive
behind the murder.
Last year, the police had arrested Pradeep Brahmbhatt,
after they learnt that his brother Navrang had a financial
dispute with the deceased.
Later during interrogation, Pradeep had revealed
the names of Kalpesh Kachiya and Kiran Jingar and
admitted to offering Rs five lakh to the two for bumping
off Manoj, claimed police.
According to police, Kalpesh and Kiran contacted
Paresh, who was serving a term in jail. Paresh directed
them to Fredrick, who asked them to contact Bablu
and Iqbal after which they carried out the attack.
However, Pradeep went back on his statement in the
court stating that he had never confessed his involvement
in the murder.
"The six witnesses, who were present on the
spot were not able to identify the two assailants,
who fired at the deceased.
They were not able to give any physical description
or the vehicle's number either. None of them was even
able to identify the accused in court," said
defence lawyer, Kaushik Bhatt.
"The police was not able to give any circumstantial
evidence proving the involvement of the accused or
produce any motive behind the murder. The entire investigation
was carried out in a faulty way," added Bhatt.
Prosecution lawyer, Kiran Chauhan did not comment.
"The witnesses had given factual statements during
investigations but they all went back on their statements
in the court.
When asked by the public prosecutor they said that
they never stated anything that was written in the
statement recorded by us," said investigating
officer, D M Vaghela.
The fast track court of N P Purani will record statements
of all seven accused on Friday before giving its judgement
on December 28.
