Lifer for five in 2013 murder case

Nagpur: Special judge VT Suryavanshi of MCOCA court on Monday sentenced five persons to life imprisonment and also slapped a fine after holding them responsible for murder of Santosh Sare. Though the charges under MCOCA were dropped, the court is learnt to have relied on the deposition of two eyewitnesses to convict the accused. The five accused, identified as Rohit Ramteke, Ketan Shambarkar, Sumit Bhasme, Chandrashekar Kawale and Sourabh Adlag, were booked for murder of Sare in 2013.The victim was killed at Bannerjee Layout over a property dispute. Ajni police, apart from charging the culprits of murder, had also booked them under MCOCA, which could not be proved. One of the accused, Naresh Nandurkar, was acquitted.
District government pleader Vijay Kolhe, who had examined 15 witnesses in the case, said the deposition of the two eyewitnesses proved to be the turning point of the case. “The eyewitnesses had seen the incident take place from close quarters, and they deposed well before the court,” he said.