High court acquits Mumbai 'serial killer'

The Bombay High Court on Thursday acquitted alleged serial killer Ravindra Kantrole in a 2007 murder case, reversing the judgment of a trial court, which had convicted him of the crime. A division bench of Justices Bilal Nazki and A R Joshi on Thursday acquitted him in the case, after Kantrole filed an appeal in the high court.

Kantrole, who was charged with three murders, was earlier acquitted in two of the cases, but was convicted in one by the Sessions Court. Kantrole was today acquitted in the case, where he was charged with killing a pavement dweller on the overbridge near Metro cinema, in south Mumbai on January 11, 2007.

A total of seven persons -- all pavement dwellers -- had been found murdered in south Mumbai in the beginning months of 2007. The accused was known as the 'beerman' because a bottle of beer was found near the body of all the victims.

Kantrole's lawyers had argued that the two eye-witnesses produced by the prosecution were 'bogus'.