Court acquits all eight in Pawanraje Nimbalkar double murder case, CBI to challenge verdict
A Mumbai sessions court on Saturday (June 20, 2026) acquitted all eight accused in the 2006 murder of former MLA Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver
A Mumbai sessions court on Saturday (June 20, 2026) acquitted all eight accused in the 2006 murder of former MLA Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver, citing a lack of credible evidence. Of the nine accused, one had turned an approver. The court pointed to multiple flaws in the CBI investigation, including unreliable witnesses, missing mobile phone records, and inconsistent statements. After Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde requested Union Home Minister Amit Shah to look into it, the CBI is slated to challenge this verdict in the Bombay High Court now. “As CBI had brought out very good evidence against the accused in the case, CBI will be challenging the judgment of the trial court before the High Court,” an official statement by the CBI stated on Saturday (June 20, 2026). The case involved the murder of Nimbalkar and his driver in Kalamboli, Navi Mumbai. The court stated that the prosecution failed to establish the guilt of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. One of the primary reasons for the acquittal was the unreliability of a key witness. He was an accused in the case, who later turned into an approver.
The court noted that this approver had a history of lying. The judge observed that the witness owned several properties and had substantial assets, making it implausible that he would commit such a crime for a sum of fifty thousand rupees. The court stated that the witness’s version of events could not be trusted. The investigation also suffered from significant procedural lapses. The court highlighted that the police did not seize the mobile phones of the accused or obtain their Call Detail Records (CDR). The judge stated that the CDRs could have clarified whether the accused were in contact with each other. The absence of these records was termed a major flaw. The approver’s account of his movements on the day of the murder changed multiple times. In his statements, he provided four different versions of his travel route. The court noted these contradictions and stated that his testimony could not be considered reliable due to these frequent changes. There were also discrepancies regarding the vehicle used in the crime. The car was completely burnt, but the seizure report mentioned its colour as green. The court questioned how the colour could be determined from a burnt vehicle.
Furthermore, there were differing accounts about where the vehicle was found. One witness said it was near a small house, another near a bungalow, while police records showed it was found in an open plot. The court said these inconsistencies made the investigation suspect. Another claim made by the witness involved a former police commissioner. The witness stated he had met Rakesh Maria and given him a bottle of scotch. However, the court noted that Maria had denied this claim, and the CBI had not investigated the matter further. The court also pointed out that the CBI had included a letter in the chargesheet that Nimbalkar had written to the district collector in 2003. In the letter, Nimbalkar expressed concern for his safety from Padamsingh Patil. The court stated that the CBI failed to investigate the origin and circumstances of this letter. The judge remarked that this letter should have been a cause for concern for the authorities. The court acknowledged a political rivalry between Nimbalkar and Padamsingh Patil following the 2002 assembly elections. However, the judge stated that political animosity alone is not enough to convict a person.
The BriefWire