Mumbai: Mumbai High Court on October 22 rejected the bail plea of 31-year-old Abdul Rauf Dawood Merchant, sentenced to life imprisonment by a sessions court for gunning down audio king Gulshan Kumar five years ago.

Merchant's bail plea was rejected by justices G D Patil and S K Shah on the ground that the convict had criminal antecedents. Abdul Rauf's appeal against conviction has been admitted by the high court earlier.

Prosecutor I S Thakur submitted a history sheeter of the convict enumerating a list of criminal cases pending against him. He also said that Abdul Rauf was absconding for three years after gunning down late Gulshan Kumar and was traced in Kolkata with a forged passport. If released on bail, he would sneak out of the country, the prosecutor submitted.

Defence lawyers Majeed Memon and Parvez Memon urged for his bail on the ground that his conviction was not justified.

On April 24, a sessions court acquitted 17 accused but sentenced Abdul Rauf Daud Merchant to life imprisonment on the charge of killing Gulshan Kumar (Section 302 IPC), attempt to murder Gulshan's driver (Section 307 IPC).

Merchant was also sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment (RI) for robbing a taxi to escape from the scene of offence (Section 392 IPC) and robbery with attempt to cause grievous hurt to its driver (Section 397 IPC). He was also sentenced to three years' RI under section 27 of Arms Act.

The appellant pleaded that the evidence recorded by the trial judge M L Tahilyani did not conclusively establish his involvement in the crime. He contended that the trial court's verdict was unfair, unjust, contrary to the evidence on record, bad in law and deserved to be set aside.

PTI