Jailed gangster Arun Gawli acquitted in 2008 extortion case

A Mumbai court on Wednesday acquitted gangster Arun Gawli, his younger brother Vijay Ahir and five of his gang members in a 2008 extortion case, holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against them.

The gangster, serving life imprisonment for the murder of Shiv Sena leader Kamlakar Jamsandekar, is currently lodged in a Nagpur jail.

There were nine accused in the extortion case, of which one died during the course of the trial and another turned approver. The rest, including Gawli and his brother, were acquitted by Special Judge B D Shelke, who presides over the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) special court here. A builder undertaking an SRA (Slum Rehabilitation Authority) redevelopment project in Dadar in 2005 had filed an extortion complaint against the Gawli gang in 2008.

He had alleged that Gawli, through his gang members, demanded Rs 50 lakh to allow him to continue the redevelopment project, the prosecution said.

The complainant had agreed to pay Rs 10 lak­h in instalments. Between December 2005 and May 2006, he paid Rs 7 lakh to the gang, said the prosecution.

The builder also claimed to have paid another Rs 1 lakh as a donation for Navratri celebrations.

He further alleged that sometime in June or July 2005, one Dinesh Narkar, a co-accused in the case, came to his office and assaulted him.

Narkar made him talk to Gawli's brother Vijay Ahir, who directed him to pay Rs 3 lakh to the gang member, the court was told.

The builder then reported the threat to the crime branch. The builder claimed that he did not file a complaint earlier due to Gawli's terror, the prosecution said.

During the investigation by the crime branch, it came to light that the extortion had been committed by the members of an organised syndicate, and hence, the provisions of MCOCA were invoked in the case, the prosecution said.

After going through the documents on record, the court ruled that the prosecution had failed to establish "much less beyond reasonable doubt" that the accused were engaged in unlawful activity defined under MCOCA.

"In present case, evidence on record clearly demonstrates that the prosecution has failed to establish the guilt of the accused for the offences punishable under Indian Penal Code for extortion," the court ruled.

Therefore, the accused cannot be held guilty for offences under MCOCA, it added.

Gawli, the founder of the Akhil Bharatiya Sena, was an MLA from 2004-2009 from the Chinchpokli assembly seat in Mumbai and had shot into prominence from Dagdi Chawl, a neighbourhood in the Byculla area.

He was arrested for the 2007 murder of Shiv Sena corporator Kamlakar Jamsandekar. In August 2012, a sessions court in Mumbai sentenced him to life imprisonment in the murder case.

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