A court in Maharashtra's Thane has
acquitted four persons of charges of dacoity at the residence of a television actor here in 2016.
District and Sessions Judge S B Bahalkar in his order on Tuesday said the prosecution miserably failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charges against the accused.
According to the prosecution, on the intervening night of February 3 and 4, 2016, actor Lovey Sasan, a resident of a housing society on Mira Road area here, went to her aunt's house for a party.
Her neighbours called her up in the early hours of February 4, saying her house was burgled.
After the actor reached home, she found that robbers had decamped with cash and jewellery worth around Rs 4.07 lakh.
The prosecution told the court that the robbers beat up the housing society's watchman when he stopped them from entering the premises and also locked doors of the neighbouring houses from the outside.
The actor later lodged a complaint based on which the police registered a case against four persons under Indian Penal Code sections 395 (dacoity), 397 (robbery, or dacoity, with an attempt to cause death or grievous hurt) and 458 (house trespass).
On February 27, 2016, the police arrested Sanjay Kalyan Kale (28), Ramesh Kalyan Kale (33), Suresh Vishram Kale alias Santosh Devidas Chavan (38) and Ashok Rajendra Shinde alias Raja Vishram Kale (40), for their alleged involvement in the offence.
The advocates of the accused contested the case and pointed out that the identification parade of their clients was not held.
They said in the CCTV footage of the housing society, the faces of the accused were covered, and also there was no recovery of the booty said to have been stolen by them, the defence argued.
They prayed that the accused be given benefit of doubt and freed.
After hearing both sides, the judge accepted arguments put forth by the defence counsels and acquitted the four accused.
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