A sessions court here on Wednesday awarded life imprisonment to four men for brutally killing a Congress corporator in neighbouring Thane district in May 2010.
Additional Sessions Judge K M Jaiswal found Ajay Pandey, Gulam Rasul, Vishal Mhatre and Rajesh Singh guilty under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code.
Corporator of Mira-Bhayander Municipal Corporation Praful Patil was stabbed 27 times by Rasul, while Pandey shot him twice at point blank range in the Abhinav College campus in Bhayander, killing him on the spot.
The college is run by Patil's trust.
According to police, Singh had given a 'contract' to kill Patil to Pandey and Rasul at Mhatre's behest.
Political and business rivalry between Patil and Mhatre was the motive behind the murder, the victim's lawyer said.
The case was transferred to Mumbai on the Supreme Court's direction as the victim's family claimed that no fair trial was possible in Thane as witnesses would be pressured.
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