Thane Court Sentences Arsonists to 10 Years for Attack on Congress Corporator’s Home | Mumbai News

Mumbai: Two men were sentenced to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) by the Thane sessions court for setting fire to Congress Corporator Zubair Inamdar‘s residential door in Feb 2018. Inamdar was known for his stance against street drugs.
Around 3.30 am on Feb 3, an unidentified person set ablaze the main door of Inamdar’s flat in Smruti Co-operative Housing Society, Naya Nagar. At the time, Inamdar, a three-time corporator, was visiting an unwell relative in Chiplun, Ratnagiri district, while his daughters, aged 23 and 25, were sleeping in the flat.
CCTV footage showed a man securing the door from outside before using a plastic bottle containing petrol. The recording captured him dousing the wooden door with petrol and igniting it using a cigarette lighter. The flames caught the perpetrator, who was dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans, before he fled down the stairs.
The Naya Nagar police registered an attempted murder case and arrested Asif Khan (35) and Uneb Keval (30), residents of a neighbouring building. The investigation revealed that Inamdar observed groups of young men consuming alcohol, using drugs, and riding motorcycles in the area. He organised meetings with housing societies to address these issues. Khan and Keval, who were amongst these groups, planned to retaliate against Inamdar. Although they intended the fire to harm the family, only the door was damaged before neighbours extinguished the flames. The fire did not penetrate into the flat.
The police filed the chargesheet to the court in May 2018. The additional public prosecutor Rakhi Pandey presented the case as retaliation against Inamdar’s anti-drug efforts. After examining 23 prosecution witnesses, District and Sessions Judge GG Bhansali found the accused guilty and imposed an additional fine of Rs 3,000 each.