Sambhajinagar: Highway eatery owner gets life sentence for 2016 murder of transporter

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: A sessions court at Gangapur in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district has convicted and sentenced a highway eatery owner, Santosh More, to rigorous life imprisonment and Rs 1 lakh fine for the gruesome murder of a transporter, Anil Sharma, in 2016 over a money dispute.Sharma was shot thrice in the head in the early hours of Jan 18, 2016, at More's eatery before the latter and his aides beheaded the body and threw the head and torso into separate nullahs. More had invited Sharma for a birthday party. The case had then created a major sensation across the district.Additional sessions judge SB Bahalkar on April 13 convicted and sentenced three of More's aides to three years in jail for destruction of evidence and acquitted five others for lack of evidence. The case against a 10th accused was abated during the course of trial.The prosecution's case was that Sharma had lent More Rs20 lakh between 2011 and 2016 for purchasing a house. When the amount remained unpaid, disputes arose between the two. On Jan 17, 2016, Sharma was called to Hotel Nakshtra under the pretext of celebrating More's birthday.In the early hours of January 18, 2016, More shot Sharma three times in the head using his licensed revolver inside the hotel premises. To destroy evidence, he and his staff decapitated the body, removed the clothes and disposed of the head and torso at different locations, including Ganda nullah and the nullah near Maa-Bap Dargah.Sharma was reported missing the next day, and his brother lodged a complaint, following which an FIR was registered. More was arrested on January 21, 2016. Acting on his disclosure statement, the police recovered the severed head and torso from separate drainage channels. The murder weapon was seized from his house a day later. Forensic analysis confirmed that bullet fragments recovered from the victim's brain matched the revolver owned by More.The court treated the recovery of body parts at the instance of the accused as a crucial link in the chain of circumstantial evidence. It also relied on the testimony of the victim's brother to establish motive, observing that the financial transaction between the two was convincingly proved.Ahead of the court's judgment, the police on Feb 23 arrested three co-accused—Vishnu Ikhe, Raju Raut and Sudam Khandagle—who were out on bail during the course of trial. They were later convicted under Section 201 read with Section 34 IPC for destruction of evidence and were sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment. However, regarding five other co-accused, the court held that mere presence of other accused was insufficient to establish common intention, and acquitted them.The court declined to pronounce death penalty for More, observing that the case did not fall in the "rarest of rare" category, and directed that the fine amount be paid to the victim's wife as compensation.