Patrawala verdict likely tomorrow

MUMBAI: Sessions court judge S A Deshmukh is likely to pronounce his verdict in the murder case of 16-year-old Adnan Patrawala on Wednesday, five years after he was allegedly murdered by his friends.
On August 19, 2007, Sujit Nair, Ayush Bhat, Rajeev Dharaiya and Amit Kausha, all currently aged between 25 and 31, and an under-18 boy allegedly kidnapped Patrawala, son of a businessman in Andheri.They allegedly strangled Patrawala to death in Navi Mumbai after their plan to extort Rs 2 crore as ransom went awry and the police got wind of the kidnapping. Patrawala’s body was found in his car at Palm Beach Road in Vashi.
The prosecution examined about 25 witnesses. Charges were framed against the youths in June 2009. Special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said there was strong circumstantial evidence against the accused. “The case rests on circumstantial evidence. The victim was last seen in the company of the accused. Moreover, one of the accused had told the police where they dumped Patrawala’s body.”
However, the defence said there were several lapses in the investigation. Maintaining that the accused were innocent, Nair’s advocate Ashish Chavan said, “The entire chain of circumstance is required to establish that the evidence is of believable and cogent nature and this is lacking. Hence, the prosecution has failed to prove the case beyond the shadow of reasonable doubt.”
An important prosecution witness is a man who saw the accused putting Patrawala in the car in a very drowsy condition on August 19.