Lekha G
A special court on Thursday acquitted gangster Chhota Rajan and another accused, Jagannath Jaiswal in the Hanif Kadawala murder case due to lack of evidence.
Kadawala, a film producer accused of transporting weapons to Mumbai on instructions of Tiger Memon, was killed by three men on February 7, 2001, in his Bandra office.
Subsequently an FIR was filed and a chargesheet was submitted against Jaiswal and Rajan among other suspects.
CBI alleged that Rajan had ordered kadawala’s killing as a part of nationalist drive to kill those accused in the bombings to gain public sympathy.
In 2020, the court rejected a plea by Kadawala’s son, who wanted a relative to be tried in the case on the ground that his father was killed over property dispute and the contract was given by his uncle.
On this context the court further said that “It is difficult to gather from the evidence placed by the prosecution under what circumstances the acquitted accused made statement to the son of deceased and his friend and what prompted him to give such a statement after a lapse of 16years”.