Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the sessions court order awarding life sentence to a convict Abdul Rauf Dawood Merchant for his involvement in the sensational murder case of music baron Gulshan Kumar, near a temple in Juhu area of city suburb 24 years ago.
The court also confirmed the acquittal of TIPS company co-founder Ramesh Taurani but set aside the lower court’s order acquitting Merchant’s brother, Abdul Rashid Dawood Merchant, and sentenced him to undergo life imprisonment.
A division bench comprising Justice Sadhana Jadhav and Justice N. R. Borkar has found the Merchant siblings guilty of murder, conspiracy, common intentions and under the Arms Act.
“The appellant (Abdul Rauf) should not be entitled to remission if any. He has criminal antecedents and continued in similar activities thereafter. In the interest of justice and society at large, the appellant doesn’t deserve any leniency,” the court observed.
The court further noted that soon after the 1997 incident, Abdul Rauf was absconding till his arrest in 2001, and later released on furlough in 2009 and re-arrested in 2016.
The court pass an order on an appeal field by state Government against Taurani and Abdul Rashid’s acquittal, and Abdul Rauf’s appeal against his conviction and life sentence.
It maybe recalled that on Aug. 12, 1997, Gulshan Kumar was shot dead with 16 bullets outside a temple.
The prosecution contended that the killing was an outcome of business rivalries between Kumar and Taurani, and a rift between Kumar and music director Nadeem Saifi – of the erstwhile Nadeem-Shravan duo.
As part of the differences, Saifi allegedly hired gangster Abu Salem of the Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar gang to eliminate Kumar. (UNI)
