Two eye witnesses declared hostile in Lehve murder case

Two eye witnesses declared hostile in Lehve murder case
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

SATARA (MAHARASHTRA), FEB 4: The case involving the murder of NCP activist Sharad Lehve has taken a significant turn with the prosecution declaring two key witnesses hostile after they supported Udayanraje Bhosale, former minister and the prime accused held in custody.

Prasad Patwardhan and Ashok Chowgule, eye witnesses, were declared hostile by public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam on February 1 as they did not support the prosecution's case.

Bhosale, 13th descendent of erstwhile Maratha ruler Chhatrapati Shivaji, is accused of killing Sharad Lehve in Satara on the eve of state assembly elections on November 11 last year. Lehve was a supporter of Udayanraje's uncle and NCP candidate, Abhaysing Bhosale.

Patwardhan was travelling along with the deceased in his car at the time of the incident. According to prosecution, he has seen Sharad Lehve being killed by Udayanraje Bhonsale and his men.

Patwardhan, however, did not toe the prosecution line at the time of giving evidence. This witness told the court that he ran away along with the driver when they saw a mob approaching towards their car.

Another eye witness, Ashok Chowgule, also did not tender evidence in favour of the prosecution. He admitted that his house is right in front of the spot where Lehve was found murdered but denied having seeing the killers.

After declaring them hostile, the public prosecutor cross-examined both of them to demolish their evidence.

Another witness, Baban Gokhale, however, strengthened the prosecution's case by telling the court that on the day of the murder he saw the victim's car taking a reverse turn when a crowd led by Udayanraje Bhosale approached the vehicle.

Gokhale further said that he saw Udayanraje striking the first blow on the victim with a sword and telling his supporters to finish him. He then saw the mob attacking Lehve with swords and the victim collapsed on the ground.

Soon thereafter, he left for Kolhapur and returned after a few days, the witness told the court.

The defence lawyer, Dhairsheel Patil, however, in the cross-examination of the witness, tried to establish that he and his family-members were given loans of Rs 25,000 each from a cooperative bank and this was the reason why he was supporting the prosecution's case.

A panch witness also turned hostile yesterday. Initially, he was supporting the prosecution but later took a different view. A video cassette was produced before the court by the defence team which showed the panch witness telling supporters of Udyanraje that police had forced him to sign the panchnama.

Earlier, another cassette was produced before the court which showed witness Sanjay Pawar talking to Udayanraje in a hospital. Pawar told Udayanraje that he had voluntarily come to the hospital and denied seeing the killers of Sharad Lehve.

On a prosecution plea, the court had ordered an inquiry to probe how the cassette was recorded in hospital when the accused was in jail custody.

While police blamed the hospital authorities, the doctors held the jailor and police guards responsible for allowing the cassette to be shot. As a consequence, four cops have been suspended.

Udyanraje continues to be in custody since September 12, last year. Earlier, his plea for bail was turned down by the trial court as well as the High Court.

The prosecution has already examined 14 witnesses. About eight to ten witnesses have yet to tender evidence before the court.