Aditya Ranka murder: Cousin acquitted, friend is convicted
The Sessions Court on Monday convicted Vrijesh Sanghvi, 29, who was arrested in May 2013 for kidnapping and murdering South Mumbai-based diamond broker Jitendra Ranka’s 13-year old son Aditya. The court, however, acquitted cousin of the deceased, who the police claimed was the alleged brain behind the crime, on the grounds of lack of sufficient evidence.
The police had claimed that the two accused were into betting on Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket matches, and having lost money on bets, they kidnapped the teenager and demanded ransom from his family to pay off their debts.
The court presided by the principal judge SB Agarwal is yet to decide on the quantum of sentence, arguments on which will be heard on Wednesday. Special Public Prosecutor Kalpana Chavan said that Sanghvi is the one who had executed the murder and was held guilty of charges of kidnapping, murder and destruction of evidence. “The crime committed was of a serious nature. He killed the very child with whom he used to play,” Chavan said.
She added, “The prosecution is definitely going to seek for life sentencing till his natural death.”
Following the verdict, the prosecution blamed the police for what it called a `shoddy probe’. “It was …read more