One held guilty, 18 acquitted in Akola sex scandal

Akola, Jan 15 (PTI) A local court here today held primeaccused Tinu alia Nita Takwat as guilty and acquitted 19others in a sex scandal that had rocked the region couple ofyears before.

Takwat has been sentenced to four-year rigorous jailterm and slapped a fine of Rs 2000 under section 5 ofprevention of immoral traffic act (PITA).

Delivering the verdict in the case involving highprofile officials today, the Additional Session Judge N VDeshmukh acquitted all other 19 accused for want of strongevidence.

Prominent among the accused who were acquitted werethe then deputy commissioner of Akola Municipal CorporationMohan Nagalkar and the then Police Inspector of city kotwaliSanjay Pardesi.

Incidentally, a witness Santosh Kutafale (37) would beissued a show cause notice by the session court for perjury(false deposition).

The judge also passed severe strictures against theinvestigation agency for not handling the case properly.

The alleged sex scandal was first exposed by a localdaily in February 2008.

During the course of investigation, the prosecutrixhad given clean chit to the then Dist Superintendent ofPolice Deepak Pande.