Duo gets 7 years’ rigorous imprisonment for 2020 fatal break-in at Nutan’s bungalow

THANE: A Thane sessions court convicted two men and sentenced them to seven years’ rigorous imprisonment for the robbery at late actress Nutan’s bungalow in Mumbra which left an elderly security guard dead and his colleague with a shattered leg.Additional sessions judge V L Bhosale, in the Feb 20 verdict, also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 each on Sanjay Bhandari (29) and Ganpat Gullar (22), part of which must be paid as compensation to the deceased’s family and the injured guard.According to prosecutor, on the intervening night of Feb 2-3, 2020, around 1am, Bhandari, Gullar, and an unidentified accomplice broke into the hilltop bungalow on Parasik Tekdi and began stripping it of brass fittings — pipes, valves, and taps — worth Rs 9,000. Security guards Bhanudas Dudhbhate and Roopsing Vishwakarma (61), both on night duty, confronted them. The accused set upon the two guards with wooden logs and a cricket stump, delivering blows with such ferocity that the stump itself broke.Vishwakarma, who bore the brunt of the assault, suffered skull fractures and intracranial haemorrhage. He battled for his life for nearly three weeks before succumbing to his injuries on Feb 21, 2020.

Dudhbhate survived, but required surgery for a fractured femur.The defence pulled out every argument in the book — no test identification parade, poor visibility at night, a gap of four days between hospital discharge and death suggesting an unrelated cause, and claims that Gullar was named only because Bhandari pointed at him during interrogation.The court dismissed each contention.Judge Bhosale held that Dudhbhate, as an injured eyewitness who faced his attackers at close quarters, was a reliable and credible witness whose testimony was fully backed by post-mortem examination findings.