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SC upholds TADA conviction against two Bombay gangsters

The Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of two gangsters under the Terrorists and Disruptive Activities (prevention) Act.

The men, belonging to Amar Naik group, were convicted for extorting money from Kalpataru Construction Company when it was developing a property called 'Nakshatra Building' at Pali Hills, Bombay.

A division bench comprising Justices S S M Quadri and D P Mohapatra upheld the conviction of Babu Kuttan Ramakrishna Pillai and Umesh alias Babu Purushottam Bhatt saying TADA court's verdict did not suffer from any infirmity.

The prosecution had alleged that at the behest of Amar Naik, who died in 1996 in a police encounter, his gang members threatened the construction workers at the site in 1994 and demanded Rs 1 million as protection money, which was reduced later to Rs 500,000.

The company owners informed the police and and accordingly policemen in plain clothes were deployed at the appointed place.

The gangsters, after a tiff with police, escaped with the bundles of papers faked as currency notes but the police later arrested them.

The bench, dismissing the appeals of the duo, said the trial judge has given cogent reasons for accepting the evidence led by the prosecution against the appellants and for rejecting the contentions raised by the defence.

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