Jharkhand: Don Akhilesh acquitted in Sreeleathers baron Ashish Dey’s murder

A Jamshedpur court on Tuesday acquitted alleged Mafia don Akhilesh Singh in connection with the case of the daylight murder of shoe baron Ashish Dey, owner of the famous brand Sreeleathers. This is Singh’s 54th acquittal in criminal cases.

“The court of additional district and session judge Rajendra Prasad Sinha acquitted Akhilesh Singh charged under section 302 and 129 B of the Indian Penal Code in the absence of conclusive evidence. We examined 16 prosecution witnesses, none of whom supported the prosecution charge. On the other hand, we have produced 14 documentaries and circumstantial evidence against prosecution evidence. After examining all the evidence, the court found it inadequate to convict Akhilesh Singh of conspiracy and acquitted him giving the benefit of doubt,” Singh’s counsel, senior advocate Prakash Jha, told HT.

The trial was carried out over three sessions in the past 16 years. In the first session, the court convicted Singh’s brother Amalesh, Vinod Singh and Pappu Don for murder and handed out life sentences to them.

In the second session, Akhilesh’s alleged mentor Vikram Sharma was acquitted by the court in the case about six months ago, and Akhilesh was acquitted in the third session. An FIR was lodged in the murder case based on a complaint by Dey’s manager Tapas Pal.

He is, however, still in jail and will remain so in view of his conviction in the murder of Jamshedpur jailor Umashankar Pandey. He was acquitted on August 11 in the murder of Bagbera resident Upendra Singh.

Amlesh and Vinod Singh’s appeal against their conviction has been pending in the Jharkhand high court, while they have been out on bail after the Supreme Court allowed their interlocutory application and granted bail.

Ashish Dey was shot dead by motorcycle-borne shooters on 2 November 2007, near Aambagan ground when he was coming out of his residence to go to his shop in Sakchi market under Sakchi police station in the heart of the city.