Bengaluru: Jailed Mohammed Nalapad Haris, son of Shantinagar Congress MLA N A Haris, will have to wait for two more days to know the fate of his bail petition in the attempt-to-murder case against him.
After conclusion of marathon arguments from both the sides, the Karnataka high court on Monday posted his petition for order on Wednesday afternoon. Justice Sreenivas Harish Kumar said in the CCTV footage made available to him by the prosecution, it is Md Haris who’s seen assaulting the victim, Vidvat L, first.
The judge was responding to senior advocate C V Nagesh’s claim that the FIR registered by one of Vidvat’s friends, who’s an eyewitness himself, doesn’t explicitly state that the lawmaker’s son committed any act with criminal intent and which can be proved by evidence. In his submissions, Nagesh further claimed that Vidvat’s injuries were not life-threatening and he, in fact, had addressed media on February 18, a day after the alleged assault.
On the controversial remark in Vidvat’s discharge summary that no untoward incident happened during treatment, Nagesh claimed it was the result of use of ‘bad language’. On Vidvat’s discharge summary details being posted on the Facebook page of the petitioner’s father, Nagesh said the information was in the public domain with a news channel telecasting it on March 5 itself.
Uncharitable remarks
Nagesh termed the claim of the special public prosecutor (SPP) that Dr K Anand, who issued the discharge summary, was related to a politician close to the lawmaker, uncharitable. According to him, he’s a plastic surgeon who was the lead doctor in Vidvat’s case.
He read out from the discharge summary that Vidvat’s injuries were not life-threatening as he had only suffered undisplaced hairline fracture on both nasal bones and frontal maxilla and also on ribs at lateral angles.
On March 2, a city sessions court had rejected the bail petition filed by Md Haris and six others.
Box: Hidden hands
Nagesh said some hidden hands are acting in this case as it had taken a political turn, and the petitioner has become an unfortunate victim.
He claimed that senior BJP leader and former deputy chief minister R Ashoka is related to the investigating officer, and a DGP of the state visited Vidvat claiming he was a family friend and later visited the police station as well.
Box: 100-odd witnesses yet to be questioned
In his brief submissions, SPP M S Shyam Sundar contended that the mystery of the petitioner’s side accessing the victim’s medical records has not been unravelled. He said the probe is still progressing and 100-odd witnesses who were present at Farzi Café, where the attack took place, need to be questioned. He claimed that Mallya Hospital authorities were adamant and not furnishing any documents. He argued that Dr Anand was not authorized to issue the discharge summary and only a chief medical officer could have done it as it’s a medico-legal case.
