THANE: A Thane sessions court has acquitted a man from Gujarat, reportedly an LIC agent, accused of murdering a resident of Wada in Palghar district, after the prosecution failed to prove the charges.Dharmesh Mishra, 40, was acquitted by district Judge M M Walimohemmad. The prosecution told the court that the victim, Rauf Ansari, 43, had given Rs 1.70 lakh to the accused for an LIC policy. Allegedly, the accused did not make the payment to LIC nor returned the money to the victim. When the victim pestered him to return the money and threatened that he would file a police complaint, the accused allegedly attacked the victim with a steel pipe in the victim's house in the intervening night of October 21 and 22, 2015, and killed him. Before fleeing the house he took away Rs 40,000 in cash besides the mobile with SIM card of the victim. He disposed of the SIM card en route to his house, the prosecution was told. The accused was tried of charges under sections 302, 397 and 201 of the IPC.Advocate Ramrao Jagtap pointed out several lapses, which resulted in the acquittal of the accused. The counsel said the motive behind the murder has not been proved by the prosecution, the bank manager of HDFC Bank, where the accused is said to have deposited the cash, has not been examined and the prosecution has also not proved that the accused was an LIC agent.The defence argued that the prosecution has not proved that the victim and the accused were last seen together in Wada, besides this the CA report was nil. The recovered cash was not produced in the court. The doctor's report also stated the victim could have died due to a fall on a rough surface. The prosecution also failed to examine those who the accused had given money from the one he had received from the victim for payment towards LIC policy, the defence pointed out.The judge accepted arguments put forth by the defence and acquitted the accused.

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