Mumbai: The Bombay high court has rejected a petition and imposed a cost of Rs 15,000 on the petitioners, who were arrested on charges of cheating and abetment to suicide of their friend, Sunil Shinde, by allegedly taking Rs 15 lakh from him on the false promise of providing him with an owl that has 10 talons and could bring its owner a ‘shower of money’. The petition was filed seeking to quash the Kalyan sessions court order framing charges on the accused saying that the proper procedure to frame charges was not followed.
Justice Mridula Bhatkar dismissed the petition filed by Krian Gajdhane, Aakash Gajdhane and Sanjay Gajdhane.
In the petition, the trio had demanded that the order of sessions court framing charges on them for cheating and abetment to suicide be quashed and set aside. It was argued that the lawyers of accused were not present before the court at the time of framing of charges and the charges were not explained to the accused due to which valuable right of audience was lost.
Considering the allegations, Justice Bhatkar called the record of the trial court and held that proper procedure to frame charges was followed and hence dismissed the petition.
“We have already forwarded the matter to advocate S. Sinha of the Supreme Court,” said O.A. Siddiqui counsel of petitioners.
The prosecution’s case is that the accused had allegedly promised Shinde that they would give him an owl that had 10 talons, which would magically cause showers of currency notes. They induced Shinde to part with Rs 15 lakh but failed to provide the said bird. And after waiting for a considerable period, Shinde got frustrated and demanded his money back. However, the accused allegedly threatened to implicate him under the Black Magic Act and a case outraging the modesty of a woman. In these circumstances, Shinde committed suicide on March 16.
It is further alleged that Shinde’s elder brother found a suicide note in a cupboard on March 17, and handed it over to Badlapur police, which registered an FIR against accused and arrested them.
