Police rely on Awhad’s speech as ‘confession’ in chargesheet

As part of the chargesheet filed recently before a court in Thane, the investigation team added the script of a 16-minute speech given by Awhad when the MVA parties were protesting against the alleged inaction by Thane police in the case where Uddhav Sena’s party worker Roshni Shinde was alleged to have been beaten by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s party workers.

During the speech, a copy of which was taken by the Thane police from a Marathi news channel, Awhad said that three years ago, a morphed obscene photo of his was shared on social media. He also showed the photo.

“Won’t party workers feel angry looking at such a photograph? If someone does this to your leader, raise your hands and tell me whether you will feel angry or not? Party workers beat him up a bit. Now everybody is carrying this brave man (Karmuse) on their shoulders. It was our government in power so nothing much happened in the High Court. However, once this matter reached the Supreme Court, the current government (Shinde-Fadnavis government in Maharashtra) considered him their own child and held him in their laps and shoulders and got an order of further inquiry,” Awhad said.

An officer overseeing the probe said, “In the speech given by Awhad… he has confessed that his men had beaten up Karmuse. We have added a transcript of the speech in the chargesheet.”

During the course of the probe by ACP Gajanan Kabdule, two more stringent sections — 364(A) and 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code — were added in addition to sections of rioting and kidnapping.

Section 364 (A) relates to kidnapping with a threat to cause death or harm and 120(B) relates to criminal conspiracy that will tie up Awhad closely to the crime, police said. While the initial chargesheet was filed against 13 persons, including Awhad, the current SC-mandated probe has named two more accused in the case, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 15.

Police have also relied on CCTV cameras from Viviana mall located near Awhad’s bungalow where the alleged incident took place, Utsav hotel, also located nearby, and Karmuse’s building from where he was allegedly abducted.

Police also re-recorded statements of some of the policemen employed as security to Awhad who said that they were initially reluctant to testify against then minister Awhad, fearing that they would lose their jobs.

Then senior inspector of Vitthalwadi police station, where an FIR was registered, said in a statement that three of his junior cops probing the case gave wrong information, favouring Awhad.
Police also got a report from the forensic department of JJ Hospital on the nature of injuries sustained by Karmuse on the basis of the photographs taken immediately after the incident. The report said, “ ..the injuries have been caused due to hard and blunt impact and are simple in nature.”