1992 JJ Hospital shootout: Court bins discharge plea of accused, cites evidence against him

Mumbai, Nov 3 (PTI) A special MCOCA court in Mumbai has rejected the discharge plea of a key accused in the 1992 JJ Hospital shootout case, saying there was ample material on record to show his involvement in the crime.

Evidence prima facie clearly demonstrates the accused was involved in the "offence of conspiracy, murder aiding, abetting to the criminal activity of crime syndicate", Mahesh Jadhav, special judge presiding over the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court, said in an order passed on November 1.

The accused, Tribhuvan Singh, alias Shrikant Rai Rampati, was arrested in 2024, 32 years after the shootout at the Maharashtra government-run hospital in central Mumbai. Prior to his arrest in the present matter, Singh was an undertrial prisoner in an Uttar Pradesh jail.

The shootout took place on September 12, 1992, resulting in the death of three people.

While pressing for his discharge, Singh's lawyer Sudeep Pasbola contended there was no sufficient evidence to frame charges against his client.

The defence argued that statement of an injured witness reflected that he had seen only two assailants firing at the hospital -- Subhash Thakur (convicted) and Brijesh Singh (discharged). Therefore, there was no question of the involvement of a third assailant (Tribhuvan Singh) in the crime and that it was a case of mistaken identity, Pasbola submitted.

However, the court noted that contention raised by the defence about mistaken identity was required to be considered at trial stage and "not at this interim stage, when eyewitness identified him as one of the assailants".

The judge underlined that for deciding discharge plea, the court is required to see that whether there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against the accused.

"The material placed on record by the prosecution suffices to hold that there are sufficient grounds for proceeding against the accused in this case," the court held.

As per police, assailants armed with deadly weapons such as AK-47s, pistols, revolvers, and hand grenades, with the intention of spreading terror, entered J J Hospital and indiscriminately opened fire before fleeing the scene.

Gangster Shailesh Haldankar and two policemen were killed in the shootout, while a constable and some hospital staffers had suffered injuries.

Investigation revealed the shootout at the hospital was a deadly fallout of long-running rivalry between the gangs led by underworld dons Arun Gawli and Dawood Ibrahim. The gun battle was triggered by the murder of Ibrahim Parkar alias Ibrahim Lambu, husband of Hasina Parkar, the sister of Dawood Ibrahim.

Dawood Ibrahim suspected Gawli and his associates were responsible for the murder.

Several people were arrested in the case, of which three accused -- Subhash Thakur, Shyam Sharma and Jayawant Suryarao -- were convicted by the court, according to the order.

Discharge is a stage that comes after a chargesheet has been filed in a criminal case, but before charges are framed by the court concerned against an accused. Under this legal remedy, an accused is entitled to be discharged from a case if the evidence provided to the court is not sufficient to prove the offence. PTI AVI RSY