The Bombay High Court confirmed the 2002 trial court verdict acquitting TIPS co-founder Ramesh Taurani, and convicting Abdul Rauf Merchant in the 1997 murder of T-series owner Gulshan Kumar.
A division bench of Justices Sadhana Jadhav and NR Borkar, however, set aside the trial court’s order acquitting Merchant’s brother- Abdul Rashid Dawood Merchant- and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The brothers were found guilty of murder (302), common intention (34) of IPC, and under 27 of the Arms Act. The court additionally found them guilty u/s 120B (conspiracy) of the IPC.
“The appellant (Abdul Rauf) should not be entitled to remission, if any…He has criminal antecedents and continued in similar activities thereafter. In the interest of justice and society at large, appellant doesn’t deserve any leniency,” Justice Sadhana Jadhav said.
Justice Jadhav said it “is a matter of record the appellant (Rauf) absconded soon after the incident in 1997 and could be arrested only in 2001. He was subsequently enlarged on furlough in 2009 and re-arrested in 2016.”
The high court also dismissed the state government’s appeal and upheld the acquittal of Taurani. The prosecution, represented by Advocate Prajakta Shinde, had claimed business rivalry as the motive for the murder.
The court pronounced the order on Maharashtra Government’s appeal against Taurani’s and Abdul Rashid Merchant’s acquittal and Merchant’s appeal against his conviction and life sentence.
On August 12, 1997 music honcho Gulshan Kumar was shot dead while exiting a temple at Jeet Nagar in Juhu, Mumbai. The assailants had pumped in 16 bullets, killing him on the spot.