Bhatija murder case: Court to award sentence on Tuesday

A local court will pronounce on Tuesday the quantum of punishment in the 23-year-old murder case in which former Ulhasnagar MLA Suresh alias Pappu Kalani and three others were found guilty.
Kalani was convicted for criminal conspiracy by Additional Sessions Judge Rajeshwari Bapat-Sarkar here yesterday, who acquitted two others for want of evidence.
One Ghanashyam Bhatija was murdered in Ulhasnagar on February 27, 1990 near the Pinto Resorts at Ulhasnagar in the district. His brother Inder Bhatija, who had seen his brother getting gunned down, was himself shot dead on April 28, 1990 despite having police protection.
According to police, both the murders were a fall-out of long-standing political and criminal enmities.

The police had filed charge sheet against Pappu Kalani, Bacchi Pandey, Baba Gabrial, Mohamad Asrat, Dr Narendra Ramsinghani, and one Richard.
While Bacchi, Baba and Mohamad were held guilty of murder and conspiracy, Kalani was convicted only for conspiracy (section 120-B of Indian Penal Code). The remaining two were acquitted.

Special public prosecutor Vikas Patil today presented before the court the demand for death penalty for all the four convicts.
He said that Kalani had a criminal record and Bhatija's murder was well planned. Patil argued that Kalani was involved in over two dozen murder cases, some of which are still under trial.

However, the defence counsel argued that since the crime did not fall in the rarest of rare cases, Kalani and others did not deserve death penalty.