The Supreme Court has issued a notice to the Maharashtra government seeking its reply on the plea of Abdul Rauf Dawood Merchant, convicted in the murder of T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar. Abdul Rauf Dawood Merchant was sentenced to life imprisonment by the trial court in the Gulshan Kumar murder case. While the lower court had acquitted Abdul Rashid Dawood Merchant. However, in 2021, the Bombay High Court upheld Abdul Rauf’s conviction and also overturned the lower court’s decision to acquit Abdul Rashid.
The High Court had said that Abdul Rashid was one of the killers who participated in the shoot-out. Both have challenged the decision of the High Court in the Supreme Court. In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had issued a notice on the petition of Abdul Rashid Dawood Merchant. Today, the Supreme Court has issued a notice on the petition of Abdul Rauf Dawood Merchant and sought an answer from the Maharashtra government.
The trial court convicted Abdul Rauf in the Gulshan Kumar murder case and sentenced him to life imprisonment in April 2002. Then in 2009 he came out with parole and fled to Bangladesh. Rauf was later brought to India from Bangladesh. On 12 August 1997, T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar was shot dead in front of a temple in Jeet Nagar in Mumbai.
