Thane: The principal district and sessions court in Thane has acquitted two men accused of murdering 26-year-old Rakesh Manik Patil, the son of former Shiv Sena corporator Manik Babu Patil, citing lack of conclusive evidence and the failure of the police to produce the victim’s body.
The judgment, delivered by Principal Judge S.B. Agarwal, stated that the prosecution had failed to establish a complete chain of circumstantial evidence linking the accused to the crime.
“Looking at all the aforesaid evidence, it cannot be said that the chain of circumstances is completed pointing to the guilt of the accused, especially in a case where the body of the deceased is not found,” the court observed.
The accused — Gaurav Rajesh Singh (27) and Sachin Sarjerao Patil (25), the latter being the stepson of Manik Patil — were charged with shooting Rakesh point blank at his residence on September 20, 2020, and disposing of the body in Vashi Creek.
According to the prosecution, a long-standing family feud over property had created tension between Rakesh and his stepbrother Sachin. On the morning of the incident, Rakesh, along with his driver Gaurav, had allegedly consumed alcohol at his father’s bungalow at Vijay Garden, Ghod Bunder Road. He was later shot while asleep on the sofa, and his body was allegedly dumped into the creek.
Rakesh’s wife had filed a missing person complaint at the Kasarvadavli Police Station on the same day. Manik Patil, who had been hospitalized at Bethany Hospital during the incident, initially suspected his son of robbing their home and also lodged a complaint against him. However, during further investigation, Gaurav Singh reportedly confessed to his involvement, leading to an FIR being registered for murder.
The prosecution based its case primarily on circumstantial evidence including CCTV footage, recovery of the alleged murder weapon (a country-made pistol), and the accused’s blood-stained clothes. However, the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) reports revealed only inconclusive human blood on the recovered items.
In its detailed order, the court emphasized that in cases based on circumstantial evidence, all links in the chain must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. The court held that in the absence of “corpus delicti” — a legal term referring to the body of the crime — the prosecution’s case lacked the definitive proof required for conviction.
“The most important aspect is that the body of the deceased has not been found. This is a classic case of corpus delicti. The other circumstances, including the recovery of CCTV footage, the pistol, and clothes, are insufficient to establish guilt conclusively,” the order stated.
The court ruled that while the prosecution raised suspicion, it failed to eliminate every hypothesis consistent with the innocence of the accused. Both men were therefore acquitted of all charges.
