Son arrested for stabbing mother pleads not guilty

Siddhant Ganore, the son of a serving police inspector from Mumbai Police who was arrested last month for allegedly murdering his mother pleaded not guilty before a magistrate appointed to record his confession last week.

But Vakola police said they have enough forensic and circumstantial evidence to have the 21-year-old convicted.

On June 2, Vakola police had informed the Bandra magistrate court that they did not want Siddhant in further custody as he promised to give a confession before a magistrate. Also, further probe did not require him to be present in their custody.

Siddhant was brought to Bandra magistrate court last week from Arthur Road jail. But he told the magistrate he does not want to confess and he is not guilty. His judicial custody has been extended. A police source said, “He must have been tutored by a relative or he must have been given advice by other inmates in jail . We did not go for his psychological profiling as it would have given him an advantage.”

Days after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray in a U-turn came on board to support the NDA’s presidential candidate, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis told HT that the meeting with BJP president Amit Shah had broken the ice between the warring allies.

While the Sena had continued its criticism of the BJP even a day after this meeting, with Thackeray terming selection of a Dalit for the Presidential post as vote bank politics, Fadnavis indicated that much of this could be his ally’s ‘public posturing’.

“Our meeting went off very well and on that day itself we knew this decision.. some of this is public posturing. I think we are quite sorted after that meeting,’’ Fadnavis told HT.

Fadnavis’ indication was that the new understanding with the Sena goes beyond presidential polls and would last until the end of his government’s term.

Sources in the BJP told HT that Shah had told Sena that after BJP’s compromise in