Abhishek Ghosalkar murder case: Court grants bail to Mauris Noronha’s bodyguard, says no material to show complicity

The judge observed that “from the FIR, it did not appear that at the relevant time the applicant (Mishra) was present at or near the said place of occurrence” and that his ‘complicity in the commission of offence is highly doubtful’.

Additional Sessions judge V M Pathade passed an order in Mishra’s bail application on June 25, which was made available on Monday. Mishra, through advocates Ganesh Gole and Ateet Shirodkar, argued that he held a firearm licence in Uttar Pradesh and the District Magistrate of Prayagraj (erstwhile Allahabad) had granted him the permission to carry the said licenced firearm to any part of India.

He added that on the day of the incident, Noronha had asked Mishra to keep the gun in a locker in his office and accompany his personal assistant Mehul Parekh to a hospital as Parekh’s mother was not keeping well.

Mishra claimed he kept the gun in the locker and carried the key of the same with him. However, he was unaware that it was a smart locker/safe, which can be opened through a passcode as well, which was known to Noronha.

Mishra claimed that as per live streaming of the entire incident on Facebook, it was clear that Noronha had fired gunshots and later shot himself.

After perusing material on record, the judge observed, “It is evident that there was only one entrance to the said office where the incident took place. There is no acceptable material which would demonstrate the presence of the applicant accused at or near the said place of incident so as to infer his complicity in the said incident.”

The judge further stated, “It prima facie appears that at the relevant time, Ghosalkar and Noronha were the only persons present inside the said office and in all probability, it was Noronha who attacked Abhishek Ghosalkar by firing gun shots at him.”

The court noted it was “difficult to believe that any third person could have caused the death of Ghosalkar and Noronha using a firearm which belonged to Mishra.”

The court also noted that the reason stated by Mishra for keeping his gun/pistol inside the locker “did not appear to be improbable,” as he was expected to follow his master’s directions or commands.

“If at all the applicant was a part of any criminal conspiracy to kill Ghosalkar, the same could not have resulted in the killing of Noronha,” the order stated and granted bail to Mishra on furnishing personal bond of Rs. 25, 000 along with sureties of the same amount among other conditions imposed on him to cooperate with the probe.