HC discharges four accused in Kunal Parihar murder case

Mumbai, July 7 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today discharged four people related to Gutkha Baron Jagdish Joshi, accused in the high-profile murder case of his son-in-law Kunal Parihar.

Chief Justice Kshitij Vyas today discharged Vidya Joshi (wife of Jagdish Joshi), Hema Joshi (daughter), Bhavarlal Sharma and Moharsingh Sharma (both family friends) on the grounds that their involvement in the conspiracy could not be established by the prosecution.

Meanwhile, discharge appeal was rejected by the court a few weeks earlier. He and his father, Jagdish still remain as accused in the same case.

Earlier, the Satara Session Court had rejected the discharge appeal of all the accused on the grounds that they had threatened the complainant, Kunal's father Devdhar Parihar. The court had then observed that though there was no direct evidence but the statement of the complainant and his wife spoke of grave suspicion of their involvement.

Challenging the rejection the accused persons approached the High Court and Justice Oka had set aside the order and asked the Satara Court to examine the matter afresh and decide within three months.

The Satara Session Court again rejected the discharge on January six this year and thus they have approched the High Court again.

While Kunal was found murdered on April 21, 2001, Kunal and Hema were allegedly having an affair earlier, which Hema's family did not approve of and therefore the prosecution alleged that they were involved in the conspiracy to kill him.

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