Four acquitted for lack of evidence in teenager’s murder case

Sujit Nair, Amit Kaushal, Ayush Bhat and Rajeev Dhariya, all in their 20s and 30s, had been charged of killing Adnan Patrawala, who was 16 when he was killed by his friends on August 19, 2007. They had been accused of murder, kidnapping, extortion and destruction of evidence. According to the police, Adnan - the son of a builder from Andheri - had left home on August 18 in his father's Skoda to meet the youngsters whom he had befriended on a social networking site. They allegedly kidnapped Adnan and demanded a ransom of Rs20 million. The police claimed that the youth panicked after hearing the news on television of the kidnapping; they allegedly strangled Adnan and dumped his body along Navi Mumbai's Palm Beach road. Charges were framed in the session's court in 2009 against the four accused - and a minor, who is being tried by a juvenile court. However, on Monday, the trial court acquitted all four of them as the prosecution was unable to prove the conspiracy theory and also could not produce the necessary evidence. The prosecution has decided to challenge the verdict.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com