mumbai the maharashtra government has directed the public prosecutor to file an appeal against the acquittal of sharp shooter abdul rashid daud merchant and tips cassettes director ramesh tauraniwho are the two main accused in the gulshan kumar murder casea petition challenging additional sessions judge ml tahaliyanis verdict setting them free is likely to be filed next week on april 29 the sessions court had convicted only one accused abdul rauf merchant a shooter for the murder of the late audio king gulshan kumar and had sentenced him to life imprisonmentmr kumar was gunned down near a temple in suburban juhu on august 12 1997 the court had acquitted the other accused for want of evidencethe state law and judiciary department accepted the recommendation made by special public prosecutor ujjwal nikam to move the high court in appeal against the acquittal of mr merchant and mr tauranimr nikam said the court erred in disbelieving important evidence given by a prosecution witness he said the witness arif lakdawala had claimed that he had heard mr tauranui and music composer nadeem saifee conspiring to kill the music baron nadeem has been treated as an absconder he said mr lakdawala overheard a telephoneconversation between mr taurani and gangster abu salem the conversation allegedly referred to rs 25 lakhs being sent to salems henchmen for killing mr kumarthe supreme court of london had thrown out the indian governments application to extradite nadeem the uk court had held there was no evidence with the indian government to seek nadeems extraditionthe sessions court verdict was another set back for the city police as it rejected the polices contention that a conspiracy to kill gulshan kumar was hatched under the leadership of dubaibased gangster abu salem