A sessions court has rejected the bail application of a resident of a housing society and its security guard, booked for the fatal assault on a homeless man.
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Jalil Khan, 45, who did odd jobs as a plumber and handcart-puller, stayed on a footpath outside the housing society. He had an altercation with the security guard and two members of the housing society in Khetwadi area of Girgaon in South Mumbai in 2024, and they allegedly kicked him and hit him with sticks, causing his death.
“There are eyewitnesses to the incident. Acts of accused shows that their intention and knowledge to cause death of the accused i.e. culpable homicide not amounting to murder,” additional sessions judge NP Tribhuwan said in the order passed last month.
Mayank Jethwa, a 27-year-old civil engineer and Santosh Singh, a 44-year-old security guard, were booked by the VP Road police. The prosecution claimed that they assaulted Khan with a stick to drive him away from the building. The accused had claimed that Khan was an alcoholic and used to sit in the vicinity of the building, and on the day of the incident, on October 22, 2024, was creating nuisance.
In his bail application, Singh submitted that the CCTV footage shows that he was walking on the street but there is nothing to show that he had assaulted Khan. Jethwa, too, submitted that the chargesheet does not show any intention or motive to commit Khan’s murder.
The only allegation was that he was standing at the spot and mere presence on the spot cannot mean complicity in a crime, his bail plea said. The prosecution, however, opposed the bail pleas claiming that eyewitnesses, two other men who were playing cards outside the gate with Khan, had deposed that they managed to run when the accused came towards them but since Khan was unwell, he was unable to run and was assaulted by the accused.
The court said that the statements of the witnesses and postmortem notes prima facie show that there is evidence against the accused. “..act of the accused itself shows that they have knowledge that they will cause the death of the deceased, if they assault him by means of bamboo, fists and kicks in the manner of several blows, which is mentioned in the postmortem notes and statements of eyewitnesses,” the court said.
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The court rejected the bail plea of Jethwa on April 9 and that of Santosh Singh on May 9.
The accused this week approached the Bombay High Court, seeking bail. Justice Milind Jadhav on May 2 directed the prosecution to submit on the precise role attributed to the accused.
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