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Special Judge Satyanarayan Navandar acquitted Padamsinh Patil, Latur-based businessman Satish Mandade, former Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation councillor Mohan Shukla, Parasmal Badala, also known as Parasmal Jain, alleged shooters Dinesh Tiwari and Pintusingh Chaudhary, Bahujan Samaj Party worker Kailash Yadav from Baskhari in Uttar Pradesh's Ambedkar Nagar district, his close aide Gyanendra Pande, and former State Excise officer Shashikant Kulkarni.
The prosecution had alleged that Patil and the other accused were part of a criminal conspiracy to eliminate Nimbalkar due to political rivalry and that two of the accused had carried out the killings. However, the court held that the evidence produced by the prosecution was insufficient to establish guilt.
According to the prosecution, Nimbalkar was travelling from Mumbai to Pune in his Skoda car on June 3, 2006, when a Tata Indica overtook and blocked his vehicle near the steel market in Kalamboli. Investigators alleged that Parasmal Badala identified Nimbalkar to the assailants after driver Samad Kazi informed him that the person seated in the rear passenger seat was the Congress leader. Dinesh Tiwari and Pintusingh Chaudhary, who were accompanying Badala, allegedly opened fire, killing both Nimbalkar and Kazi before fleeing the scene. The accused allegedly abandoned the Indica car and separated to evade arrest.
The Kalamboli Police Station in Navi Mumbai registered a first information report and the Navi Mumbai Police Crime Branch launched an investigation. However, the probe failed to achieve a breakthrough, prompting Nimbalkar's widow, Anandibai Nimbalkar, to approach the Bombay High Court seeking a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry.
In her petition, Anandibai named Nationalist Congress Party leader Padamsinh Patil as the prime suspect. She stated that Patil and Nimbalkar had once worked together but their relationship deteriorated around 2002. According to her, Nimbalkar had lodged several complaints against Patil with different authorities. She further stated that Nimbalkar had contested the 2004 Assembly election against Patil, who won by a narrow margin of 484 votes. She alleged that Patil viewed her husband as a political threat and orchestrated his killing with the assistance of close associates before the Terna Sugar Cooperative elections scheduled for June 2006.
Acting on her petition, the Bombay High Court transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, observing that the investigation conducted by Navi Mumbai Police had reached a dead end. Subsequently, the Supreme Court shifted the trial from the Raigad Sessions Court in Alibag to the Mumbai Sessions Court.
The Central Bureau of Investigation claimed to have cracked the case after Parasmal Badala, who was already in custody in another matter, allegedly disclosed the entire conspiracy. Investigators said Badala informed them that he was suffering from a sexually transmitted disease and urgently needed money for treatment. He allegedly approached his friend Mohan Shukla for financial assistance.
According to the agency, Shukla assigned the task of eliminating Nimbalkar to Badala and directed him to meet businessman Satish Mandade in Latur. The businessman allegedly offered him ₹12 lakh to carry out the murder and showed him Nimbalkar's residence in Govardhanwadi in Latur district, his tractor showroom in Dharashiv, and another residence in Pune. Unable to execute the plan alone, Badala allegedly informed Mandade, who advised him to involve others and increased the contract amount to ₹30 lakh.
Investigators alleged that Badala travelled to Uttar Pradesh and contacted Kailash Yadav, who entrusted the operation to Gyanendra Pande. Badala allegedly paid ₹1.50 lakh to Yadav and returned to Dombivli.
The Central Bureau of Investigation stated that during the second week of May 2006, Pande, Dinesh Tiwari and Pintusingh Chaudhary arrived at Kalyan railway station, where they were received by Badala. They travelled to Latur in a second-hand Tata Indica purchased with money allegedly provided by Mandade and surveyed locations frequented by Nimbalkar, but failed to locate him.
On June 3, 2006, investigators alleged that Badala telephoned Nimbalkar while pretending to be a man named Mahendra Jain, claiming interest in purchasing land in Vashi for construction of a Jain temple. During the conversation, he allegedly asked about Nimbalkar's whereabouts. Nimbalkar informed him that he was travelling from Mumbai to Pune and agreed to meet him on the way.
The four accused allegedly followed Nimbalkar's vehicle, intercepted it near the steel market in Kalamboli and shot him and Kazi. According to Badala's statement to investigators, Nimbalkar was sleeping in the passenger seat when the firing took place. After the killings, the accused allegedly travelled beyond the Khopoli toll plaza, abandoned the Indica and dispersed. Pande and Tiwari allegedly left by a state transport bus, while Badala and Chaudhary travelled to Sion in a goods vehicle. Badala later returned to his native village in Rajasthan.
Investigators claimed that around two weeks later, Mohan Shukla handed over ₹25 lakh to Badala near Fountain Hotel in Borivali. Badala allegedly kept ₹5 lakh and transferred the remaining ₹20 lakh to Kailash Yadav.
The Central Bureau of Investigation maintained that the motive behind the killings was linked to the Kargil fund controversy of the early 2000s. According to the agency, Padamsinh Patil, who was then a state cabinet minister and chairman of the Terna Sugar Cooperative, had been accused of misusing funds collected for families of soldiers killed during the Kargil conflict. Investigators alleged that anti-corruption activist Kisan Baburao, popularly known as Anna Hazare, exposed the alleged irregularities with information reportedly supplied by Nimbalkar. The agency claimed that the dispute between the former associates intensified and eventually culminated in the double murder.
To prove its case, the Central Bureau of Investigation examined 127 witnesses, including Anna Hazare, who told the court that there had also been a plan to eliminate him.
After twenty years of investigation, legal proceedings and multiple judicial interventions, the special Central Bureau of Investigation court concluded that the prosecution had failed to establish an unbroken chain of evidence and acquitted all nine accused, bringing one of Maharashtra's most politically sensitive murder cases to a dramatic close.
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