Overview
- A Mumbai sessions court led by Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Kale on Friday acquitted all eight accused, including five Haryana police personnel, in the 2016 hotel shooting of gangster Sandeep Gadoli.
- The court found them not guilty of murder under Section 302 and related counts after a near-decade trial, and the detailed order has not yet been released.
- Prosecutors, citing a Mumbai Police SIT, said the encounter was staged, pointing to CCTV of a planted gun and broken cameras and to call records tying the team to rival leader Virendrakumar “Binder” Gujjar.
- The defence said they fired in self‑defence and noted a foot wound and a forehead injury to two officers as unlikely in a fake shootout, arguing flaws in CCTV and procedure that the judge said left reasonable doubt.
- The case began with a February 7, 2016 operation at a Mumbai Andheri hotel that Haryana police called a lawful encounter, and proceedings against accused Divya Pahuja were later abated after her 2024 killing.