Ten jailed for plotting Mahesh Bhatt's murder
The court also acquitted the accused from MCOCA charges.
Mumbai: A special MCOCA court on Wednesday convicted and awarded a five-year jail term to 10 persons arrested in the case related to a plan to kill Bollywood filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 2014. Two of the accused were acquitted from the charges. The court also acquitted the accused from MCOCA charges.
Special public prosecutor Pradeep Gharat said that the prosecution's case is that fugitive gangster Ravi Pujari wanted to terrorise Bollywood and hence planned to eliminate Bhatt. However, acting on a tip off, the police raided a garden and arrested the accused, who had gathered to execute their conspiracy.
Advocate Gharat further said that the conspiracy started with the fact that an US-based wanted, accused, Obaidullah Khan allegedly wanted to obtain overseas rights of the Hindi movie Happy New Year and decided to eliminate Bhatt and threaten Morani brothers through Ravi Pujari.
Karim Morani refused to act as per Pujari's instructions and hence Pujari made his men fire at Morani's office and a separate case is pending before the court in that case too. In the meantime Pujari also decided to bump off Bhatt to scare the Bollywood so that he could collect ransom from all the big names in Bollywood people.
According to the police, as per the plan, nine members of the Pujari gang gathered at Madhu Park in Mulund on November, but an informer told the police about the meeting. The police then raided the garden and nabbed seven persons as the rest managed to flee from the spot. The police recovered four revolvers and 31 live cartridges from the accused. A few hours later, the police team went to Malvani in Malad to arrest the two persons who had fled from the garden. Apart from those two, it found one more gang member and arrested him too. them too.
Of the 10 arrested, special judge Shridhar Bhosle acquitted Yusuf Kadri, alias Yusuf Bachkana, and Ravikesh Singh from all charges. Judge Bhosle also acquitted all the persons from charges of MCOCA but convicted them under provisions of IPC and Arms Act and sentenced them to five years of imprisonment.