Gulshan Kumar Murder: Bombay High Court Upheld Conviction Of Abdul Rauf, Abdul Rasheed; Ramesh Taurani Acquitted
Mumbai, 1st July 2021: The Bombay High Court has upheld the conviction of Abdul Rauf Merchant and his brother Abdul Rasheed Merchant in the murder case of T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar.
A bench of Justice SS Jadhav and NR Borkar delivered the verdict of the case.
A total of four petitions related to the murder of Gulshan Kumar had come to the Bombay High Court. In this, three appeals were against the conviction of Rauf Merchant, Rakesh Chanchala Pinnam and Rakesh Khaokar.
Another petition was filed by the Maharashtra government against the acquittal of Tips owner Ramesh Taurani and Abdul Rasheed Merchant. However, the court has dismissed the Maharashtra government’s appeal against Taurani.
Gulshan Kumar was gunned down outside Jeeteswar Mahadev temple in Andheri (West) on 12 August 1997. He was coming out of the temple when bike riders fired 16 bullets at him. He died on the spot.
In the 1980s, Gulshan Kumar founded T-Series and by the 1990s he had become famous as the ‘Cassette King’. Police said that he was killed due to a business rivalry.
Merchant was convicted by the court in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. In April 2002, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2009, he was granted parole to visit his ailing mother. During this time he had fled to Bangladesh. However, Bangladesh Police arrested him in the fake passport case. Merchant was first kept in Kashimpur Jail in Ghazipur after being arrested in Bangladesh.
According to police, underworld don Abu Salem had given the responsibility of killing Gulshan Kumar to sharp shooters Merchant and Vinod Jagtap. On 9 January 2001, Jagtap confessed that he had shot Gulshan Kumar.
