Court Rejects Discharge Plea in 1992 JJ Hospital Shooting Case

In a significant development, a special court in Mumbai has rejected the discharge and bail pleas of a 63-year-old man arrested in the 1992 JJ Hospital shooting case. The incident was a deadly shootout stemming from a violent gang rivalry between the factions of Arun Gawli and Dawood Ibrahim, leaving three people dead, including two police constables.

The accused, Tribhuvan Rampatisingh, was arrested earlier this year, more than three decades after the incident. He had approached the court seeking discharge and bail, arguing that he had been falsely implicated due to mistaken identity and that there was no material evidence linking him to the shootout.

However, the court dismissed both the applications, ruling that there was prima facie material connecting the accused to the crime. The judge observed that the question of mistaken identity could only be determined during the trial and that the evidence on record disclosed sufficient grounds to proceed.

The prosecution had firmly established the accused's identity through medical and documentary records, including the fact that he had sustained firearm injuries during the police counter-firing and was treated at a hospital in Surat, where doctors and eyewitnesses later identified him.

With both the discharge and bail pleas rejected, the decades-old case now moves toward a full trial phase, keeping the spotlight on this long-standing and complex criminal investigation.