Mumbai: The Bombay high court has granted bail to a 26-year-old man, arrested for killing a 27-year-old private moneylender from Chikhli in Pune, inspired by Bollywood crime thriller movie ‘Drishyam’.
The accused and his father had buried the deceased on a rented plot after the murder. The victim had lent them money and in order to avoid paying back the loan they killed him.
Justice P.N. Deshmukh while granting bail to Mehboob Alam Maniyar observed that the court has already released his father Samidullah on bail and apart from other aspects the accused need to be released on the ground of parity too.
The prosecution case is that the father son duo killed Shriram Shivaji Walekar and buried his body on a plot rented by them. However, the police exhumed his body three months after the incident when they stumbled upon the duo during the course of investigation.
Walekar’s father had lodged a complaint on September 28, 2016 with Nigdi police station in Pune about his son gone missing on September 27. During the probe, the police learnt that Walekar was a private moneylender and hence the police started investigation about people to whom Walekar had given money as hand loan.
According to police, with the help of CDR police came to know that Walekar was in touch with the accused on phone on the date of incident and hence detained Samidullah. During interrogation, Samidullah spilled the beans about the murder. He also told the police that his son was also involved in the act, following which both were arrested.
After hearing arguments on bail Justice Deshmukh observed that, as per one witness he was mediator between the accused and the deceased and he is testifying that the accused had paid back the loan amount of Rs 5 lakh in front of him so there was no reason for them to murder him.
The CDR only shows that the accused and deceased spoke to each other but it doesn’t show the conversation between them and Walekar’s phone was in use on September 28. The judge also noted that the place from where the body was exhumed was not locked and anybody could have entered that place.
