Journalism of Courage
PUNE: Three accused,one of them a woman,were sentenced to life imprisonment for the abduction and brutal murder of a 26-year-old man to whom the woman owed money. Additional Session Judge N P Dhote on Monday convicted Vaishali Mahanawar (32) of Chinchwad,Yogesh More (20) of Chikhli and Jitendra Patil (27) of Nigdi under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy),302 (murder) and other relevant sections of the IPC. The three had murdered Prabhakar Devkate,a resident of Chinchwad,on November 13,2011. According to the prosecution,the trio hatched a plan to kill Devkate because he was demanding his money back from Mahanawar,who ran a cloth business. He had given her Rs 3 lakh. On November 13,2011,they called Devkate for a meeting and abducted him. Later,they killed him by attacking him in the throat and groin with a blunt metal object. He was also strangulated using Vaishalis scarf. His body was dumped at a place on the Alandi-Pune road. Additional Public Prosecutor Sunil More said the prosecution proved the guilt of the accused relying on the call records of Vaishali and Yogesh as well as that of the deceased. The weapon used for the murder (metal object and dupatta) were seized too. The accused have been awarded life sentence for conspiracy and murder,besides a five-year imprisonment for destroying evidence. They have also been imposed a penalty of Rs 750 each.
Pre-bail plea of ex-corporator rejected
Dance bar raided; 65 held
PUNE: The Pune rural police on Sunday night raided a dance bar at Kanhe and arrested 65 people,including eight women dancers and owner and manager of the bar. The police said a 20-member team raided Deepa Bar near Lonavala,off Pune-Mumbai highway. ASP Vijaykumar Magar said: The bar had permission to run only till 10 pm and had illegally employed dancers. We arrested eight women dancers,manager and owner of the bar and 55 customers under Sections of the Bombay Police Act. The arrested persons were released on bail later.
