The court agreed with the prosecution's assertion that Kalani (63) was behind the conspiracy to kill BJP activist Inder Bhateja.
Political observers said this was the first instance in Maharashtra in recent memory where a former legislator had been found guilty of a crime as grave as murder. Kalani has as many as 76 criminal cases against him, including 8 of murder.
As sessions judge Rajeshwari Bapat Sarkar pronounced the quantum of sentence around 12.30pm, chaos prevailed in the Kalyan court premises and outside. Several Kalani supporters, who had gathered at the court campus, shouted slogans and traffic on the adjacent street came to a stop.
Kalani, Bachie Pandey, Baba Gabriel and Harshad Shaikh were convicted by the court in Bhateja's killing on Friday. On Saturday, as the two sides presented their arguments, a, said special public prosecutor Vikas Patil had sought death penalty for the four on the grounds that it was "rarest of rare" case.
"Kalani and the victim were close relatives and the murder conspiracy was hatched on the grounds of political rivalry. The accused could have tackled him in the elections by winning, but instead chose to play with the victim's life. It was a cold-blooded and pre-planned murder," Patil had argued.
Bhateja was shot dead in April 1990, two months after his brother Ghanshyam was gunned down. That year, Kalani was contesting the assembly elections from the Ulhasnagar constituency as a Congress candidate, while the Bhateja brothers were backing the BJP candidate, Sheetaldas Harchandani.
On February 27, the polling day, when the Bhatejas reportedly caught Kalani's associates casting bogus votes, they were threatened. The same evening, allegedly on Kalani's instructions, the accused gunned down Ghanshyam near Pinto Park Hotel; Inder managed to escape the attack. "After his brother's murder, Inder wrote several letters to the authorities and managed to secure police protection. But on April 28, he was gunned down at his office," Patil said.
The prosecution examined 35 witnesses in the case, including Inder's bodyguard, a police constable who was an eyewitness and the complainant. "The constable identified three accused—Pandey, Gabriel and Shaikh—in court. Another important witness was the victim's brother Kamal Bhateja. He told the court that Kalani had threatened Ghanshyam on the day of the first murder," Patil added.
The prosecutor said there was evidence to show that Pandey, Gabriel and Shaikh used to visit Kalani's house. "These shooters were not related to any political party, nor were they social activists. There was no reason for them to visit the house," Patil said.
Kalani's lawyer said a bail plea will be filed soon along with an appeal against the verdict.
The Supreme Court stayed the trial in Ghanshyam's murder case after the prosecution filed an appeal against dropping the charges under TADA. Until the stay, 19 witnesses had been examined.
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