Supreme Court Acquits Nagpur Gangster in Infamous Courtroom Murder

In a surprising development, the Supreme Court has acquitted Nagpur gangster Raju Bhadre in the over two-decade-old killing of Swapnil "Pintu" Shirke inside the Nagpur district and sessions court premises. This dramatic reversal comes eight years after the top court had upheld Bhadre's life sentence in 2017.

The Supreme Court's division bench, comprising Justices MM Sundresh and Satish Sharma, ruled that the prosecution's case failed to meet the threshold of proof beyond reasonable doubt. Accepting the defense argument that key testimonies, particularly from Shirke's mother and sister, could not be relied upon, the bench concluded that "certain crucial aspects were overlooked" by both the trial court and the Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench.

Bhadre, who had been serving his sentence since 2014, walked free after spending over 10 years in custody. The Pintu Shirke killing, carried out within court premises, remains one of Nagpur's darkest chapters of gang rivalry, a precursor to the infamous 2004 lynching of gangster Akku Yadav in the same building.