A Mumbai court on Saturday acquitted eight persons, including former Maharashtra minister and Nationalist Congress Party leader Padamsinh Patil, in the murder of former MLA Pawanraje Nimbalkar and his driver, The Hindu reported.

Nimbalkar and his driver were shot dead by two assailants in Navi Mumbai on June 3, 2006. The prosecution had alleged that Patil orchestrated the killing of the Congress leader as he considered him a political threat.

The court, however, said on Saturday that the prosecution had failed to prove the conspiracy beyond reasonable doubt. It said that there were several shortcomings in the probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation, including unreliable witness testimonies, missing mobile phone records, and inconsistent statements, The Hindu reported.

The others who were acquitted were Patil’s associates Satish Mandade and Mohan Shukla, alleged shooters Dinesh Tiwari and Pintusingh Chaudhary, Bahujan Samaj Party member Kailash Yadav and his associate Gyanendra Pandey, and former state excise inspector Shashikant Kulkarni. A ninth accused man, Parasol Badala, had turned an approver, in exchange for which he was granted pardon, the Hindustan Times reported.

Although the CBI’s case was based largely on Badala’s testimony, the court found his statements to be unreliable. The judge said that he had been held in illegal police custody for a significant amount of time, and that the police had tortured him to secure a confession, according to the Hindustan Times.

Patil is the step-brother of Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar, while Pawanraje Nimbalkar was the father of Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) MP Omprakash Nimbalkar.

Omprakash Nimbalkar is one of the six rebel Uddhav Sena MPs who did not attend a parliamentary party meeting in Delhi on June 18.

Edited by Neerad Pandharipande.