An Indian man and four alleged accomplices have been acquitted of the charges of killing another man with a snake as part of an elaborate life insurance scam.
In 2021 Prabhakar Wakchaure was arrested for staging his own death and killing another man, Navnath Yeshwant Anap, using a cobra to secure the life insurance claim worth Rs 371m (£3.6m).
However, after a case which lasted almost nine months from its first hearing, Wakchaure and four others were acquitted by the Additional Sessions Judge for Sangamner Prashant Kulkarni in August 2023.
Judge Kulkarni was unequivocal in the ruling and highly critical of the investigatory process undertaken, noting there was little evidence to suggest the alleged conspiracy.
“I conclude that the evidence was lacking upon many material points since first information of the offence,” he said.
This included that the prosecution’s evidence was also lacking on the point of preparation and commission of crime and that the investigating officer did not make any inquiries with the people in the vicinity from where the accused alleged to have kidnapped or abducted the deceased.
The judge continued: “The chain of evidence is so incomplete. Every fact and circumstance around it was doubtful about the unequivocal conclusion of guilt of the accused. The benefit of each doubtful situation goes to the accused.
“So, I concluded that due to the negligence and casual mode of investigating agency the prosecution could not produce some material evidence on record.
“The prosecution failed to establish the chain of circumstances consistently establishing the fact in respect of the criminal conspiracy of accused persons for commission of crime.
“The prosecution has also failed to establish the murder committed by the accused of one Navnath Yeshwant Anap and disappeared the evidence of death.”
As a result, all five defendants – Wakchaure, Harshad Raghunath Lahamge, Harish Ramnath Kullal, Prashant Ramhari Chaudhary, and Sandip Sudam Talekar – were acquitted.
