MUMBAI: A special MCOCA court, while acquitting 12 accused in the firing at the Juhu bungalow of producers Karim and Ali Morani in 2014, has observed that it appeared one of the cops investigating the case cooked up a story regarding certain aspects and discrepancies appearing in his evidence create a shadow of doubt about the happening of the incident. While 12 accused, including alleged gangster Obaid Radiowala, were acquitted on Thursday, the judgment was made available on Friday.
The cop told the court that while a day after the incident, he was present at the spot and recorded the statement of a security guard in the presence of two of the other Morani brothers, Ali said they were out of town that day. The cop also gave two answers as to when and where guard’s statement was recorded.
It is the prosecution’s case that alleged gangster Ravi Pujari wanted Obaid to obtain overseas promotion show rights related to film ‘Happy New Year’ and had made threat calls to the Moranis.
The court said the prosecution had not brought any concrete evidence showing the 12 acquitted accused were in contact with the wanted accused, including now-extradited Pujari, and at their instance they had committed the alleged offences.
The court said while Ali had said no one from his family was present at his residence at the time of firing, the watchman claimed they were in the house. “According to Ali, bullet was hit on window whereas evidence of watchman shows except car and tree, the bullet didn’t hit on any other object… he is far away from the truth and he is a brought-up witness.”