Journalism of Courage
Sleuths of the crime branch investigating the case of two murder suspects getting out of the Yerawada Central Prison on a forged bail order have arrested a senior clerk working with the Shivajinagar District Court for allegedly forging the order. Police suspect the clerk, Deepak Dnyanoba Raut (51), took Rs 15 lakh from Tanaji Nimhan, father of murder accused Tushar and Chetan Nimhan, to “ensure their release on bail”.
Raut, a resident of Kasba Peth, was working in court no. 2 (Judge J T Utpat). The crime branch has also arrested Tanaji Nimhan, a former NCP corporator.
“We arrested Raut and Nimhan on Thursday evening. It has been prima facie learnt that Tanaji paid Raut Rs 15 lakh to get his sons out. It’s suspected that Raut spent most of this money at bars in Panvel. We would learn more details about the case once the two arrested suspects are produced in court and we get their police remand,” said Sunil Pawar, Police Inspector, Crime Branch (Unit 3).
On Wednesday, 18 days after they came out of the prison, the police traced Tushar and Chetan and sent back to Yerawada jail after producing them in court. The serious issue came to light on November 28 when the two failed to attend for a hearing in the high-profile Prateek Nimhan murder case.
The court asked the police about their whereabouts after which the police produced the bail orders submitted to the jail authorities. The judge discovered that the orders were not signed by him.
Tushar and Chetan are accused in the murder of Prateek Nimhan (27) at the Pashan residence of his friend in 2013 out of political rivalry.
A jailor with the prison had registered an offence against unknown persons for forging the bail order that had the sign and seal of judge Utpat and , submitting it in the drop box at the Yerawada jail office.
