7 lawyers acquitted

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate V K Yawalkar acquitted seven lawyers on Saturday who were accused of allegedly manhandling police sub-inspector Ashok Randive of Bundgarden police station in 2008. The incident had taken place at the Shivajinagar district and sessions court and the lawyers had earlier obtained an anticipatory bail.

The seven lawyers who have been acquitted are Girish Shinde,Vinayak Abhyankar,Dnyandeo Chaudhary,Rajendra Shinde,Prashant Mane,Shirish Shinde and Satish Kamble. According to the judgment,Randive had failed to identify the seven lawyers before the court,which was a major reason for their acquittal.

Randive was in search of Rajendra Shinde while investigating a crime under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt),504 (intentional insult to provoke breach of trust) and 506 (1) (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code which was registered with the Bundgarden police station.

According to the prosecution Shinde had contacted Randive on his cell phone and asked him to meet at Shivajinagar court on October 3,2008. It is alleged that Shinde and the other accused manhandled and abused Randive and forcibly dragged and produced him before the then principal district and sessions judge AIS Cheema.