Mohsin Shaikh murder: HRS chief Dhananjay Desai, others accused acquitted

Nine years after a techie Mohsin Shaikh was brutally murdered in the Hadapsar area of Pune, a court on Friday acquitted the 20 accused in the case including Right-wing leader Dhananjay Desai, who heads the Hindu Rashtra Sena (HRS).

Additional Sessions Judge SB Salunke acquitted Desai and others for lack of evidence.

Desai was represented by senior lawyer Milind Pawar.

Shaikh (28), an IT professional, was attacked and killed on June 2, 2014 in Hadapsar area by a mob incensed by morphed pictures of deities and personalities such as Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.

Desai was granted bail by the Bombay High Court on January 7, 2019.

“It was a conspiracy. I was framed,” Desai said after the acquittal.

“In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP registered a huge win and Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister…the politics landscape was changing and the Congress was upset,” he said.

Around that time, the Congress-NCP Democratic Front government was in power.

According to the police case, Desai had delivered a provocative speech instigating the audience at the meeting - afterwards some people had gone on a rampage. Mohsin, who was on a bike with another person, was attacked. The person travelling with him managed to save himself and escape but Mohsin died.

Mohsin was a native of Solapur district.