Mumbai, July 21: A local court today acquitted 20 Shiv Sainiks of the charges of rioting and damaging property owned by the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI), including the replica of the prestigious World Cup, more than four years ago. They were acquitted by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate S B Mhaske on the ground that police had failed to establish their identity as accused in this case.

Police registered a case against 20 Shiv Sainiks after they barged into BCCI office on January 18, 1999 and damaged property including replica of the World Cup in protest allegedly on the ground that the cricket board here was trying to establish relations with Pakistan Cricket Board. The accused were arrested and produced before the court which released them on bail on January 21.

Chargesheet was filed in 2000 and the trial went on for a year. A large number of witnesses were produced in the court to support the case, including Sharad Diwadkar, executive secretary of BCCI.

However, the witnesses could not identify the accused. Besides, the police had not held identification parade which is a must in criminal trials.

Defence lawyers Satish Maneshinde and Sayaji Nangre argued that the police had failed to establish the identity of the accused. They harped on evidence of witnesses who said that the protest by Shiv Sainiks happened in the spur of the moment and they hid under the tables to save themselves and therefore could not see the accused. Bureau Report