The Supreme Court today shifted to Mumbai the trial in the 2006 Pawanraje Nimbalkar murder case in which Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MP Padamsingh Patil is the main accused.
A bench of justices C K Prasad and J S Khehar transferred the trial, which was going on in a court in Alibaug town in Maharashtra, on the plea of the deceased's wife Anandibai Nimbalkar who had sought that the case be moved to Delhi or any place out of Maharashtra.
Patil has been accused of the murder of his political rival Nimbalkar who, along with his driver, was gunned down on June 3, 2006.
The case was investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Anandibai had sought transfer of the trial alleging that Patil, a Lok Sabha member from Osmanabad in Maharashtra, was influencing the witnesses and a few of them had already turned hostile.
The apex court transferred the trial to Mumbai, which was suggested by Patil's counsel and the lawyer representing Anandibai did not oppose the same, advocate Manoj Kumar, who is associated with the case, said.
Patil was not in favor of shifting the case to Delhi as the documents of the case were in Marathi and had requested that the matter be heard anywhere in Maharashtra, Kumar said.
