Sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment
Four policemen from Vanrai police station in Goregaon (east) on Saturday have been convicted and sentenced to seven years rigorous imprisonment in the 2013 custodial death of a suspected thief. The sessions court, however, has not convicted them on murder charges under which they were booked, but under section 304 part II, which stands for culpable homicide.
The convicts have been identified as Chandrakant Kamble, (54) a head constable and Kiran Pingale, (40) Umesh Gosavi (39) and Sandeep Salunkhe (41), all police naiks (a rank above police constable). The crime branch had also used CCTV camera footage as evidence but the conviction was announced on the statement of the eyewitness Ratan Wani who was caught along with the deceased. Apart from Wani, there were 34 more witnesses in the case.
On October 26, the deceased Manoj Salve alias Aniket Khichhi (20) was caught by people while he was allegedly trying to steal a bag from an exhibition in a ground in Goregaon (east). Salve and his aide Wani were beaten up and handed over to the Vanrai police station. He was allegedly beaten up by the detection staff and died of internal bleeding in his head.
The relatives of the Salve had staged a massive protest outside the police station. They demanded that the policemen involved be booked for murder.
An accidental death report was registered at the police station and Mumbai crime branch led by then joint CP Himanshu Roy and additional CP Niket Kaushik took over the probe on October 29. Inspector Sandeep Vishwasrao investigated it and made arrests in the case.
The accused have also been convicted under section 330 (voluntary causing hurt to extort confession or to compel restoration of property), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.
