Darjeeling: Five people from Maharashtra sentenced to life imprisonment in murder case
West Bengal: The District and Sessions Court, Darjeeling, on January 12, 2023 sentenced 5 people from Maharashtra to life imprisonment for robbery and murder of Pradeep Ojha, a businessman from Darjeeling. This is believed to be the first case of its kind in Darjeeling city, where a businessman was murdered with the intent of robbery. “Judge Jihut Bahan Biswas found the five guilty under Section 396 of the IPC and awarded rigorous life imprisonment. 24 witnesses were examined in the case,” Darjeeling Public Prosecutor Pranay Roy told PTI. Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) deals with robbery with murder. It states that if five or more people are committing robbery together and one of them commits murder, all of them can be sentenced to death or rigorous imprisonment for life.
The five include Nitin Popat Kale (30), Ashutosh Irkar (21), Sachin Chandrakant Deshmukh (43), Gautam Prakash Mali (22) and Santosh Prakash Shinde (28), all hailing from Maharashtra’s Sangli district. Ojha, 52, used to visit his vacant flat on Gudi Road every Thursday for morning prayers. On January 12, 2023, when he returned very late and was not picking up the phone, around 3 pm his son and others called him and went to the flat to inquire. They forcibly opened the door and went inside and found him in a dead state, with his hands and legs tied and a cloth tied over his mouth. There were injury marks on the body. Some valuables, including a gold chain, laptop and cash, were also missing. Pradeep Ojha’s post-mortem report read: “Intracranial bleeding before death and possibly homicidal in nature”. An investigation began.
The guard of ‘Valley View’, where the deceased had a flat and was murdered, claimed that he had seen a group of unidentified men on that day, who claimed that they had come to inquire about vacant flats for rent. The guard managed to identify the prime accused, Nitin Popat Kale, who ran a gold shop close to the victim’s shop. Nitin and Ashutosh were residents of Mukhiya Building, Beechwood Road, Darjeeling and were acquaintances of the deceased. They were arrested and remanded to police custody. Their call records and tower locations revealed a crime track, which led to the arrest of Sachin Chandrakant Deshmukh and Gautam Prakash Mali.
Santosh Shinde was also arrested later with the help of Maharashtra police. During police remand, Ashutosh admitted to hiding the victim’s gold chain, which was recovered. The tower location revealed that the three (not living in Darjeeling) arrived in Darjeeling from Maharashtra on January 9 and were staying at a hotel 50 metres away from the crime scene. For three months, Nitin and Ashutosh had been keeping a close watch on the victim’s movements. On the day of the fatal incident, Nitin and Sachin were keeping watch outside while Ashutosh rang the doorbell. As soon as the victim opened the door, he was attacked.
