The special court for MPs and MLAs has acquitted 38 members of the Shiv Sena who were booked in July 2005 for being part of a mob allegedly intent on disrupting a gathering organised by Narayan Rane. The list of accused included senior party leaders Bala Nandgaonkar, Sada Sarvankar, Anil Parab, Ravi Chavan, and Jitendra Dhanavade.
As per the prosecution case lodged with Dadar police station, Rane had held a rally organised by Mukesh Puro and Pramod Keluskar. The police claimed that there was information that members of Shiv Sena may disturb the rally, hence, heavy bandobast duty was placed around the area.
At around 10 am, a mob of 400-500 women and men proceeded from ‘Saamana’ holding Shiv Sena shouting slogans against Rane. The prosecution had claimed that the intention was to disrupt the rally.
As the procession came close to the place of the rally it turned violent and the police had to resort to lathi charge. Police booked 48 senior members of the party for rioting but during the pendency of the trial 10 of them have passed away.
The case was previously pending before the Mazgaon court but till 2022, when the government amended the provisions of assault on government officials on duty, enhancing the punishment to five years, the case was transferred to the sessions court Mumbai on January 10, 2022.
The prosecution had in total examined four witnesses, which included two injured police officials, a complainant and one investigating officer. However, the court found their evidence insufficient to hold the accused guilty.
The special judge observed, “All material prosecution witnesses claimed that they sustained injuries during the alleged occurrence. Yet none of the injury certificates or medical papers proved on record to that effect.”
Court also noted, “It is apparent that some of the accused are public figures being leaders of political parties. Otherwise, no steps were taken by the Investigating Agency for identification of accused who were not known persons.”
