Man acquitted of kidnapping charges in attempt-to-murder case

A SESSIONS court in a recent order acquitted a man who was booked for allegedly kidnapping a person from outside court premises before he was to depose as a witness in a case. Firoz Ahmed Bashir Khan was acquitted from charges including kidnapping and wrongfully restraining a witness in the case.

According to the prosecution, on December 10, 2012, Parvez Shaikh was visiting the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court to depose in a case as a witness. During the lunch break, he along with another witness were having lunch in a nearby hotel. When they were returning to the court, the accused forced Shaikh into a taxi, tied his eyes and took him to an unknown place. The accused then also threatened him to depose in the case and offered him money. Shaikh refused.

Later, he was dropped by an associate of the accused to Reay Road railway station and allowed to go. Two days later, Shaikh informed about this to the prosecutor in court who advised him to approach the police. An FIR was then registered at Colaba police station.

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During the trial, the victim deposed about the kidnapping but did not identify the accused.

The accused’s lawyer Sunil Pandey had submitted that he was falsely implicated and there was no evidence including CCTV footage from outside the court to establish that the kidnapping had taken place.

The case in which the victim was to depose as a witness was related to an attempt to murder case registered in Shivaji Nagar police station in 2011.