Can’t jail Bhujbal indefinitely: HC

The Bombay High Court has said that it granted bail to Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Chhagan Bhujbal considering that at 71 years old, he “cannot be kept in custody for an indefinite period to deny his right to defend himself in accordance with law.”

After being lodged inside Arthur Road Jail for over two years, Mr. Bhujbal was granted bail on May 4 by a single-judge Bench of Justice P.N. Deshmukh. A detailed order regarding the matter was made available on the HC website recently.

In the 28-page judgement, the court said, “As of today, Mr. Bhujbal is 71 years old and since he is remanded [in] judicial custody, at no point he was required for interrogation. There appears no purpose in keeping him behind bar pending trials, when all the cases against him are considered together, there are 594 witnesses and the charge sheet is running [to] 57,102 pages.”

The court said when Mr. Bhujbal’s nephew Sameer was arrested on February 1, 2016, Mr. Bhujbal was in the U.S. on a preplanned tour He returned to India and made himself available to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the first summons dated March 14, 2016. He was then taken into custody. “This fact itself requires consideration that there is no reason to presume that Mr. Bhujbal would abscond or flee from justice, if released on bail. There is least possibility of him tampering with the same,” it said.

The order read, “It is necessary to consider that trial of all scheduled offences in question in Prevention of Money Laundering Act case is required to be [carried out] together and would take considerable time to conclude and in that eventuality, [the] right to bail is not to be denied merely because … the sentiments of the community are against the accused.”