Key Witnesses Express Fear for Their Lives; Prime Suspect Marne Granted Police Custody Till February 9
Pune: Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Tambe, the investigating officer in the Gangster Sharad Mohol Murder case, told the court on Thursday that two of the main plaintiffs in this case, Arun Dhrupad Dhumal and Swati Mohol, the wife of the murdered gangster, had provided supplementary statements regarding threats to their lives from the accused.
Both Swati Mohol and Dhumal have named the accused, Vitthal Shelar and Ganesh Marne, from whom they fear threats to their lives during the investigation. Meanwhile, the police submitted a confidential report on the crime to the court on Thursday.
This comes after one of the prime suspects in this case, Ganesh Marne, was held by police on Wednesday night on Nashik Road near Sangamner. As 15 criminals, including Ganesh Marne, have been booked by the police under the stringent MCOCA Act in this murder case, Marne was produced in court on Thursday, with special judge V. K. Marne to decide on his bail plea.
At that time, ACP Tambe informed the court that Marne and Shelar are the prime accused in the Sharad Mohol murder case that took place on January 5 on the streets of the Sutardara area of Kothrud. As per the information, Marne was on the run after Mohol’s murder, escaping police arrest. Meanwhile, he travelled to five states, including Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, and others.
Tambe also informed the court that the other accused detained in this case revealed that they are members of the Ganesh Marne gang, and they killed Mohol on the instruction of Marne. Considering the criminal background of Marne, with eight serious crimes registered against him earlier and being the prime suspect in this case, the public prosecutor Pramod Bombatkar appealed for maximum police custody for the accused on Thursday.
However, the counsel for the accused, Rahul Deshmukh, objected to this demand, stating that no single cognizable crime has been registered against the accused since 2008. He also discarded the claim of the police, saying the video on the basis of which the police are making claims that other criminals are members of Marne’s gang is not authenticated, and the accused do not even talk about this in that video. Therefore, he said that the two days of police custody are sufficient for the accused.
After hearing the sides of both parties, the court granted police custody to Marne until February 9. Meanwhile, the police have appealed to the court to produce all 15 accused in court on February 2. Currently, all the accused are in judicial custody.
