Mumbai: Bombay HC on Tuesday upheld the conviction and life term of two Chhota Rajan gang members in a 2010 double murder case. It held that the delay in informing police of the crime was not so long as to merit disbelieving the informant’s testimony.
Dismissing the appeals filed by the convicts, Mohd Ali Shaikh and Pranay Rane, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Neela Gokhale agreed with the trial court’s judgment in 2022 that the prosecution had established its case beyond all reasonable doubt, based on legal, admissible and cogent evidence. The trial court had acquitted Rajan and three others in the case.
Two men, Irfan Qureshi and Shakil Modak, were near JJ Hospital on Feb 13, 2010, when another man fired bullets at the latter. A person, the informant in the case, who was seated next to Modak, was injured. Three more men arrived and fired at Modak and Qureshi, while the informant fled. Modak and Qureshi died. A passerby was also injured and taken to JJ Hospital. The informant told police of the crime in hospital. Shaikh and Rane were arrested in Oct 2010 in another case.
HC observed that the evidence to nail the shooters rested on the informant’s deposition, weapon recovery and identification of the accused. Advocate Nitin Sejpal for the two convicts sought that the conviction be set aside as the informant had delayed informing police and his evidence contained omissions.
It is “quite believable that a person witnessing… a firing on the streets by three to four persons is likely to be shocked and rattled enough that he does not go to the police station immediately, especially with an earlier background of selling stolen articles”, HC said. It said conviction can be based on the testimony of a single eyewitness. It said the trial court’s observations on the reliability of the eyewitness testimony and the corroborative evidence were compelling.
Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat for CBI said the trial court’s verdict was well reasoned and merited no interference. HC agreed.