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Journalism of Courage
SATARA, OCT 20: Giving a new twist to the Sharad Lehve murder case, Sanjay Pawar, who claims to be an eyewitness, on Thursday said that the complainant in the case, Vijay Jadhav, had fled the scene and never witnessed the actual murder. Deposing before additional sessions judge SG Kulkarni, Pawar said he had disclosed this to Udayanraje Bhosale, former State minister who is the prime accused in the case.
Earlier, in his deposition, Vijay Jadhav had said he was an eyewitness to the murder. He had alleged that Udayanraje was the one who first struck on Levhe with a sword.
Pawar, who lived near the spot where Lehve was killed, is a prosecution eyewitness. During cross examination by defence lawyer Dhairyasheel Patil on Wednesday, Pawar admitted he met Udayanraje at Satara civil hospital on August 16.
Continuing the cross examination on Thursday, Patil confronted Pawar with a video tape which he claimed was recorded during the latter’s visit to the civil hospital. Pawar admitted that he and Udayanraje featured in the tape alongwith some others and that they were sitting in the room in the civil hospital where Udayanraje was admitted.
Pawar said he had told Udayanraje that he watched the entire episode of Lehve being killed outside his house. He claimed to have told Udayanraje that he saw Vijay Jadhav fleeing and hiding near his aunt’s house.
In his deposition, Pawar also stated that he told Udayanraje that a CID man met him and told him that Udayanraje was left handed. He claimed that he told the CID man that he had never named Udayanraje and therefore the information was uncalled for.
Pawar admitted that he told Udayanraje that he had attended one of the two parties which were organised at the Ajinkyatara Sugar Factory after the murder. He claimed that the party was attended by Lehve’s friend and a witness in the case, Dilip Kurhade, and Udayanraje’s cousin and political opponent Shivendraraje.
Pawar alleged that he met Shivendraraje at his house three days after the party. He alleged Shivendraraje had then promised to get him a loan from Ajinkya Shakari Bank as well as award some contracts to him. Pawar said he went to meet Udayanraje a month after that. He said he had gone to the hospital for his own treatment when he decided to drop in at Udayanraje’s room.
