3 Rajan men convicted for Samant murder

3 Rajan men convicted for Samant murder
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

MUMBAI, JULY 24: Additional Sessions Judge M L Tahaliyani today convicted the three main accused in the murder of trade union leader, Datta Samant. Sentencing, however, will take place tomorrow.

Arun Anandrao Londhe, Vijay Ramchandra Thopte and Ganpat Bhikaji Bamne, have been helld guilty of shooting Samant in the morning of January 16, 1997, as the Kamgar Aghadi leader left his home on Padmavati Road at Powai. The three assassins, allegedly with the Chhota Rajan and Guru Satam gangs, have been convicted on various charges including murder, attempt to murder (of the driver of Datta Samant, Bhimrao Sonkambli), rioting, unlawful assembly and illegal posession of weapons.

Asked about her submissions on the sentence, Special Public Prosecutor, Kalpana Chavan, said that while it was a gruesome and brutal murder, she could not cite it as a rarest of rare case. And hence, she said, she would not press for the death penalty but would settle for a life sentence.

Defence lawyer, Satish Maneshinde, said he wanted to make his submissions, to which the judge said he would hear their submissions tomorrow, before passing their sentences.

However, the conspiracy theory -- where the union had alleged that the sharpshooters were paid to execute the murder by vested interests, including that of the management of PAL-Peugeot, which had closed its units at Kurla and Dombivli -- was not proved.

Consequently, all the other six accused -- Prakash Sawant, Bhagwat Kunwarsingh Thakur alias Bharat Nepali (who is absconding), Raju Umakant Baje alias Raju Bedkya, Ramesh Ratan Patil, Sanjay Devkar alias Holder and Ashok Vishnu Satardekar have been acquitted by the court. Of these, only Raju Baje was in custody, the rest were out on bail. The court today issued orders to the superintendent of prisons to let Baje out, provided he is not wanted in any other case.

The Samant case, whose trial lasted nine months, had caused a furore in the trade union world. Samant had left home at around 11.10 am when the three men shot at him. They then tried to make away in autorickshaws. A total of around 75 witnesses were questioned by the court, of which a record 18 witnesses turned hostile. Sonkambli, Samant's driver who could have been a crucial witness, claimed he was shot at and in pain and so could not identify any of the accused. Interestingly, Bhushan Samant, the son of Datta Samant, who took his father to the hospital, was not listed as a prosecution witness and was specially called by the court for questioning.

It was the prosecution's case that inter-union rivalry was the motive behind the killing of Samant. According to investigations by the Crime Branch by police officials, Pandurang Patil, Anand Mule, Baburao Deshmukh and Geetanjali Puttol, the strike at PAL, Kurla, and PAL-Peugeot Ltd at Dombivli had caused a split in the Kamgar Aghadi union and Ratan Buwa Patil, the father of the accused Ramesh Patil, had formed another union -- the Sakharam Seth Union.

Workers under this union, along with Ashok Vishnu Satardekar's faction started work at the PAL factory. However, the police claimed that Satardekar and Patil started receiving death threats from the Suresh Manchekar gang. Investigations showed that Bharat Nepali, a friend of Satardekar, persuaded them to use the services of the Chhota Rajan and Guru Satam gang to execute the plan of killing the union leader.

All those convicted are in the age group of 29 to 35, police sources stated. The men who were present in court today looked on impassively at the judge when he asked them to stand up and one by one spelt out their convictions to them in Marathi. Of them, Londhe, the first accused, and who is suffering from a debilitating disease, looked at the judge with deathly unblinking eyes. Making a point for him, Maneshinde said he would be making submissions on his sentence, considering his illness, tomorrow.

Just small fish: Dada Samant

While the court has convicted the three sharpshooters for the killing of Datta Samant, there is no conviction against any of the rest, on the conspiracy angle. Outside the court today, as the verdict was handed out, supporters of Datta Samant including his brother, Dada Samant raised slogans in his memory. Later talking to newspersons, Samant said they were unhappy with the verdict, since ``minor players'' like Londhe, Thopte and Bamne were convicted of the crime.

``It is difficult to believe that persons who had nothing to do with the union work of Datta Samant could have killed him without any motive... who paid them to do the job?'' he said. He remarked that police investigations left a lot to be desired, since the main persons, who he claimed were rival union members like Ratan Patil and Ashok Satardekar, as well as the management of the PAL company, were let off by the court.

``Though there was enough circumstantial evidence towards it, there is no conviction on the conspiracy,'' he lamented and urged that the police appeal against the order in the high court. ``If they do not, we will,'' he said.

He said that the union on its own had presented proof of these allegations to the police but the latter had not followed it up or put it before the court. Earlier too, the union had alleged that the police were slack in their investigations and had even moved the high court and the Supreme Court, asking that the case be transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, this plea was never entertained.