Mumbai, Oct 13 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the acquittal of former Maharashtra minister Padamsinh Patil and seven others in the 2006 murder of Congress leader Pawanraje Nimbalkar.
On June 20, a sessions court here acquitted the accused citing lack of evidence beyond reasonable doubt.
The Central Bureau of Investigation stated in its appeal that the sessions court’s judgment was “bad in law and deserved to be quashed”.
The appeal is likely to be heard by a division bench headed by Justice S V Kotwal this week.
Last month, Anandidevi Nimbalkar, Pawanraje’s wife and Shiv Sena MP Omraje Nimbalkar’s mother, filed an appeal in the HC against the acquittal and the court issued a notice to Patil and the other acquitted accused.
On June 3, 2006, Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver Samad Kazi were on their way from Mumbai to Osmanabad (now Dharashiv) when two men intercepted their car at Kalamboli in Navi Mumbai and shot them dead.
The Navi Mumbai police initially probed the case, but the Bombay High Court later transferred it to the CBI after Nimbalkar’s wife expressed dissatisfaction over the progress of the investigation.
Patil, now 85, was arrested in June 2009 after the central probe agency took over. Besides him, the other accused included Latur-based businessman Satish Mandade, retired state excise inspector Mohan Shukla, and the two alleged shooters.
According to the CBI, political rivalry arising from financial irregularities in a cooperative bank and sugar factory soured the relations between Patil and Nimbalkar, leading to the murder.
(PTI News)
