The sessions court in Mumbai on Thursday acquitted D K Rao, alleged trusted lieutenant of fugitive gangster Chhota Rajan, in an attempt-to-murder case.
According to the prosecution, sometime in 1995 police got information that four people - Ravi Mallesh Bora alias D K Rao, Francis, Kishore Abare and Rajesh More - were going to come to suburban Juhu to attack a builder.
The police set up a trap for them at the spot, and there was an exchange of fire. While Francis died in the police fire, the others were caught and booked for attempt to murder.
Kishore Abare died during the trial.
"The prosecution examined nine witnesses, but all of them were police officers and there were no independent witnesses," said Rao's lawyer, Randhir Kale. Advocate Kale further said that even in the testimonies of the policemen, there were contradictions as to the shoot-out spot.
The court acquitted Rao for lack of evidence. He had been acquitted in a couple of cases in the recent past, and with Thursday's acquittal, only three cases are pending against him, two of them under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act.
One of the MCOCA cases relates to firing outside the residence of Iqbal Kaskar, gangster Dawood Ibrahim's brother, in south Mumbai last year in which Kaskar's bodyguard was killed.
