Man sentenced to 10-years in prison for shooting at bus passenger in Thane

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A 39-year-old man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court in Maharashtra's Thane district for firing at a fellow bus passenger in 2017. Thane Additional Sessions Judge V L Bhosale, in an order issued on January 30, also levied a fine of Rs 10,000 on the convict, Sumedh Shriram Karandikar, finding him guilty of attempted murder.

A copy of the order was made available on Tuesday, newswire PTI reported.

Additional Public Prosecutor Varsha Chandane told the court that on April 7, 2017, Karandikar fired from a country-made gun on board a bus heading from Thane to Borivali in neighbouring Mumbai, injuring a woman (senior citizen) who was seated next to her daughter-in-law.

The judge in her order said, "On going through submission of both the sides, the offence which has been committed by the accused is definitely serious in nature as far as the social aspects are concerned. No one is allowed to carry a weapon in this way at a public place in order to injure the innocent people who have no fault on their part."

The court noted that the accused was carrying the gun without any licence and was also in an intoxicated condition.

"His telephonic talk with his wife in filthy language in a public place in the presence of women passengers does not show his any good intention," it observed.

"If such kind of offences are committed by people in public places and a lenient view is taken by the court, one day it will become a defence that the accused are under intoxication and firing on people at large. A wrong message will go to the society, if a lenient view is taken in such circumstances," the court said.

Such kind of intentions are definitely not good for the society, the judge said, adding that she was not inclined to take any lenient view towards the accused.

Meanwhile, the Thane police has arrested one more person in the case where BJP MLA Ganpat Gaikwad is accused of firing on a Shiv Sena leader inside a police station, officials said on Wednesday.

The accused, identified as Divesh alias Vicky Ganatra (37), a supporter of the MLA, was on the run since the firing incident took place on February 2. He was nabbed on Tuesday, they said.

With this, four persons, including the MLA, have been arrested so far in connection with the incident. (With inputs from PTI)