Mumbai: Nine years after former MLA Milind Kamble’s driver Mangesh Waghmare shot six rounds at a construction site supervisor to teach him a lesson following constant harassment, a sessions court recently convicted and sentenced the 45-year-old to nine years’ imprisonment for attempted murder. The accused was also fined Rs 15,000.
The sentence will be set off against the nine years Waghmare spent as an undertrial since his arrest in 2016.
Refusing to accept that Waghmare had no intention to kill Anil Bhise, judge S B Pawar said he fired six rounds of bullets of which four hit him. “Though victim was fortunate enough to survive, the very act of firing bullets is indicative of intention of the shooter to cause death…The bullets are not fired from close range. The accused is not a trained shooter. Therefore, merely due to the fact that the bullets hit predominantly lower half part of the body cannot be considered as a circumstance to establish lack of intention of the accused to cause death of the injured,” the judge said.
The firearm, the licence for which had expired at the time of the shooting, belonged to Kamble, but charges could not be brought as police told the court that sanction for his prosecution under the Arms Act could not be obtained. “The additional report filed by the investigating agency pursuant to the court order directing further probe in the matter, indicates that the agency had proposed the charge for the offence under Section 3 r/w Section 25 of the Arms Act against Kamble, but they could not get sanction under Section 39 of the Arms Act,” the judge noted. Section 3 read with Section 25 of the Arms Act indicates if a person is found to be in possession of a firearm or ammunition without a valid license, he or she can be punished.
Bhise was a supervisor at Kamble’s construction site of Pragati Society in Chembur. Kamble’s revolver with live cartridges would be kept in a bag in his car, and his personal bodyguard Gautam Shinde and Waghmare would handle the bag. During trial, Bhise submitted before the court that he had no friendly relations with Shinde, Kamble, and Waghmare. On Aug 19, 2016, Shinde, Kamble, and others were inside a porta cabin, when Bhise was leaving the site. He said he heard a crackers-like sound and turned around and saw Waghmare holding a revolver and firing at him. Kamble and Shinde took Bhise to hospital.