Shiv Sena corporator murder case: Supreme Court rejects bail plea of Arun Gawli

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the bail plea of Arun Gawli, a don turned politician, in connection with a murder case of a municipal corporator.

A special trial court had convicted Gawli and given him a life sentence under MCOCA, the stringent law meant to curb organised crime in Maharashtra. The SC bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and K Vinod Chandran rejected Gawli’s bail plea and said his appeal against conviction will be heard.

Kamlakar Jamsandekar, a Shiv Sena Corporator, was shot dead by two unidentified persons on 2.3.2007 at about 16.45 hours at his residence at Rumani Manzil, a chawl in Ghatkoper, Mumbai.

Additional solicitor general Raja Thakare opposed Gawli’s bail plea argued by senior counsel R Basant. The prosecution case has all along been that Gawli, as the “kingpin’’ has been rightly convicted for the offence under the MCOC Act and hence was not entitled to bail.

Gawli’s plea was that there was no evidence on record to prove that the murder of the corporator, Jamsandekar, was committed by an organized crime syndicate, or that Akhil Bharatiya Sena is an organized crime syndicate and that he headed any crime syndicate. His plea before the HC which had confirmed his conviction against which he had appealed to the SC was also that there is no evidence to show the co-accused were the members of the “crime syndicate’’.

The prosection said the corporator had a “rivalry’’ with few accused who were members of Akhil Bharatiya sena, an organised crime syndicate headed by Gawli and all accused hatched a conspiracy to eliminate him via a contract job.

The Bombay high court then division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Anuja Prabhudessai in one order on October 5, 2015, had rejected Gawli’s bail plea in the case pending his appeal against conviction—which it had later dismissed.

While rejecting his bail plea in 2015 the HC had said, “The offences are of grave and serious nature. Considering the gravity of the offence, the antecedents of (Gawli) and the societal interest, in our considered view the applicantaccused no.1 (Gawli) would not be entitled for bail solely on the ground that he is in custody since the year 2008. ‘"

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