Not enough evidence against Saquib Nachan
The Mumbai Session Court on Saturday acquitted Saquib Nachan, an alleged member of banned outfit Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and four others in a 13-year-old murder case.
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Nachan was booked for three murders and four blasts cases, but with this acquittal, he has only one case (three blast cases clubbed into one) pending against him now. Earlier, he had been acquitted of two murders and had been discharged from the blast case. The others discharged are Shezad Adhikari, 45, Aslam alias Bunty Jagirdar, 40, Noor Mohammed Ansari, 45 and Farhan Abdul Mallik Khot, 40.
The case:
Tariq Gujar was shot dead by two motorcyclists on July 17, 2002 when he was on his way to Borivli village in Padgha at Bhiwandi taluka. Police said that all five accused were involved in the murder and Bunty and Ansari shot the victim. Nachan had told the court that there was a property dispute between Gujar and his family and since he was contesting Sarpanch elections, his political rivals had falsely implicated him in this case.
A senior defence advocate, who defended the four other accused, said: “Prosecution brought 23 witnesses including an eyewitness who was riding pillion with the deceased at the time of the incident but even he couldn’t identify them in the court. There was no evidence to prove charges against any of the accused and hence all were acquitted.” The judgement was delivered by Judge UB Shukla.