New Delhi: Four accused in a 2009 bank robbery case in Dombivli were acquitted by a court in Thane. A copy of the order dated on March 24 was made available on Tuesday.
On November 13, 2009, three men breached the Union Bank of India branch on Manpada road in Dombivli, which falls under the Thane district of Maharashtra state. The three men robbed Rs 5,88,700 after threatening people inside the bank, including the staff, with weapons. A female employee of the bank was enforced to surrender her gold ring along with the mobile phone.
Back then, a case was registered under the sections of the Indian Penal Code and Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Consequently, the thieves – Sunil Bajirao Atangale (53), Sham Balasaheb Thombre (47), Kiran Bhalchandra Borase and Manik Shamrao Wagh (47) were arrested by police just days after the case was registered. All four of them were residents of the neighbouring suburbs Kalyan-Dombivli.
The verdict in favour of accused
16 year later there case was being argued in a local court. Defence lawyers Sagar Kolhe, Nitin Bhune and Anmol Joshi made a point in their argument that there was no concrete or substantial evidence, which could link their clients to the crime of bank heist.
In his ruling, special MCOCA judge A.N Sirsikar noted that there were inconsistencies in regards to the testimonies of witness. Hence, all four accused were acquitted as they got the benefit of the doubt from the judge.
There was another case in Thane on the similar tunes, which took place in 2022. On this instance, the prime accused was arrested in a Rs 12 crore cash theft case from ICICI bank in Manpada area. Altaf Shaikh was arrested in Pune after the police chased him for more than two months of the crime. Only 9 crore of that stolen amount was thus far recovered from the Mumbra-based resident, as reported by news agency PTI.
