A notorious criminal, who carried a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, has been acquitted by a local court in a 10-year-old extortion case due to lack of evidence, sources said today.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate P N Pandey acquitted Sushil alias 'Moonch' and his associate Anil Rathi from cases registered against them under Sections 384 and 506 of the IPC dealing with extortion and criminal intimidation.
According to the prosecution, a case had been filed against
Sushil and former block pramukh Rathi for demanding a payment of Rs 10 lakh from industrialist Praveen Kumar in June, 2003.
The police, however, failed to nab Sushil then as he had gone underground with over 40 criminal cases pending against him, including murders allegedly carried out by him and his gang-members in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana.
He was eventually arrested by Special Task Force personnel from Jaipur in November last year following which the trial was opened against him that has now ended in his acquittal since all the witnesses in the case have turned hostile.
