CBI Court Acquits Two Accused In 1989 Nusli Wadia Murder Attempt Case

A Special CBI court on Monday acquitted two accused in the 1989 case of a conspiracy to murder industrialist Nusli Wadia, chairman of the Wadia Group. 

Special Judge SP Naik Nimbalkar acquitted Ivan Sequeira and Ramesh Jagothia, who were allegedly assigned the task of firing at Wadia at the behest of Kirti Ambani - a senior executive at Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).

The case against Kirti Ambani and co-accused Arjun Babaria abated as they passed away during pendency of the trial.

On Thursday, the judge observed that the charge of criminal conspiracy was not proved, pictures of Wadia recovered from the accused were of general nature and calls intercepted by the police lacked Sanction under the Indian Telegraph Act.

The court said that the evidence was “insufficient” and “inappropriate.” The special CBI judge also pointed out that cassettes of recorded conversation had gathered dust owing to the lapse of time and transcripts of these conversations were not placed on record.

Siqueira was represented by Advocate Wahab Khan assisted by Advocate Gaurav Bhawnani. Nearly 43 witnesses were examined in the case.

Facts

The accused faced charges under Sections 307 (attempt to murder) r/w 120- B (conspiracy) and 115 (abetment) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860.

It was the prosecution’s case that Kirti Ambani had contacted Arjun Babaria to bump off Wadia and Babaria in turn assigned the job to Siqueira and Jagothia. The CBI claimed that the plan was to intercept Wadia, when he would be on his way back to his Prabhadevi residence. Sequeira was allegedly shown Wadia's photographs and paid huge sums to commit the offence.

But the accused were arrested before the plan could materialise, the CBI said.

In 1990, Mukesh Ambani had in his statement to the CBI allegedly denied that Bombay Dyeing - a company of Wadia group, was a rival and said that he had learnt about Kirti Ambani's possible involvement only after his arrest.

In June 2016, Nusli Wadia deposed as a prosecution witness and said he didn't know Kirti Ambani, but was informed he worked for RIL. He also said that he didn't know why Kirti Ambani would conspire against him except for the fact that he was an employee of Reliance managed by Dhirubhai Ambani and his sons.

Kirti Ambani was charged with "instigating and abetting the commission of offence, which is punishable with death sentence". Jagothia was additionally charged under the Arms Act for the possession of a country-made revolver in July 1989.

The Maharashtra government transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 2, 1989, but the trial began much later.

The prosecution had relied heavily on call recordings from the CID’s Bandra office where in the accused were asked to call each other. However, in 2003 the special court passed an order stating that the contents of these calls are inadmissible as they are statements made by accused persons in presence of the police.

The prosecution had also produced a phone tapping of Kirti Ambani in 1989, but in the absence of sanction under section 5 of the Indian Telegraphs Act, it could not be read as evidence, the defence argued.

Regarding the motive, the defence relied on Wadia’s statement, that none of the accused were known to him or had any personal enmity with him.