Charge sheet against six jail staff in Byculla prison murder
SHETYE KILLING No clarity on the sexual assault charge filed in the original complaint SHETYE, A LIFE CONVICT, WAS ALLEGEDLY ASSAULTED BY THE OFFICIALS OF BYCULLA PRISON ON JUNE 23 WHEN SHE COMPLAINED AGAINST THEM FOR PROVIDING LESS FOOD
MUMBAI: The Mumbai crime branch, on Tuesday, submitted a charge sheet against six jail staff members for murder of jail inmate Manjula Shetye before the Esplanade court.
Three months after their arrests, the officials have now been chargesheeted for murder, destruction of evidence, criminal intimidation and criminal conspiracy with common intention.
However there was no clarity on the sexual assault charge filed i n the original complaint.the inmate who has filed the FIR had claimed that a lathi was inserted in Shetye’s private parts.
Shetye, a life convict, was allegedly assaulted by the officials of Byculla prison on June 23 when she complained against them for providing fewer eggs and bread.
The police recorded the complaint of an inmate who was an eyewitness on June 25.
The chargesheet runs into around 990 pages and includes statements of around 187 witnesses and several other docu- ments including Shetye’s medical reports.
Witnesses in the charge sheet include former media baroness Indrani Mukerjea, who is under trial for the alleged murder of her daughter, and other jail staff who were present in Byculla jail on the day of the incident.
The agency has also cited doc- tors and investigating officers along with family members of Shetye as witnesses in the case.
The agency has relied on the CCTV footage and statements of the inmates who were present at the time of the incident to prove its case against the six accused. It has however, not submitted the footage before the court at this stage. The prosecution also submitted two separate applications pleading that they should be allowed to continue the investigation.
The arrested and now-chargesheeted officials are j ailer Manisha Pokharkar, constables Bindu Naikade, Waseema Shaikh, Shital Shegaonkar, Surekha Gulve and Aarti Shingne. After carrying out a probe, the crime branch had to file the charge sheet within 90 days of the date of the arrest. The deadline expires on Thursday.
Public prosecutor Rajendra Suryavanshi submitted to the court that they have submitted the charge sheet two days in advance. The court would now scrutinise the documents submit it by the crime branch before taking cognisance.