Bombay High Court's bail order to Aryan Khan and two others was made available on Saturday (file photo)Mumbai Live News: The Bombay High Court’s detailed order granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha was made available on Saturday. In the 14-page order, the court has said that there is no material to infer that applicants hatched a conspiracy to commit offence.
“There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act. Rather the investigation carried out till this date suggests that Applicant/Accused nos. 1 & 2 (Aryan and Merchant) were travelling independent of Applicant/Accused no. 3 (Dhamecha) and there was no meeting of minds on the aforesaid issue,” the court said.
It has said that it is difficult to infer at this stage that applicants are involved in an offence of collecting drugs of commercial quantity. “After having gone through the Whats-App chats extracted from Applicant/Accused no. 1’s phone, nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that Applicant nos. 1 & 2 or all three applicants alongwith other Accused persons in agreement have meeting of minds and have hatched conspiracy committing the offence in question,” Bombay High Court on chats shown by NCB allegedly recovered from Aryan’s phone.
“Even if it is appreciated, the maximum punishment prescribed is not more than one year for such offence. Applicants have already suffered incarceration for almost 25 days. The Applicants were not even subjected to medical examination so as to determine whether at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs,” it added.
In other news, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the repealing of 3 farm bills, the Congress has decided to organise victory marches for the farmers across Maharashtra on Saturday. The main celebration is at state Congress headquarters at Tilak Bhavan. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery on Friday said that it must learn from the “humiliation” the farm bills caused and take Opposition parties and other stakeholders into confidence before drafting and enacting such legislations.
The Bombay High Court, in its order granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, further stated, "After having gone through the Whats-App chats extracted from Applicant/Accused no. 1’s phone, nothing objectionable could be noticed to suggest that Applicant nos. 1 & 2 or all three applicants alongwith other Accused persons in agreement have meeting of minds and have hatched conspiracy committing the offence in question," Bombay High Court on chats shown by NCB allegedly recovered from Aryan's phone.
"Even if it is appreciated, the maximum punishment prescribed is not more than one year for such offence. Applicants have already suffered incarceration for almost 25 days. The Applicants were not even subjected to medical examination so as to determine whether at the relevant time, they had consumed drugs,” it added.
While the NCB had argued that high degree of evidence is not required at this stage of the proceedings to establish the case of conspiracy, the HC said that it is required to be sensitive to the fact that there has to be presence of basic material in the form of evidence so as to substantiate the case of conspiracy against the Applicants. "Merely because of Applicants were travelling on the cruise, that by itself cannot be termed as satisfying foundation for invoking provisions of Section 29 (conspiracy) against the Applicants," the court said.
The Bombay High Court's detailed order granting bail to Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha has been made available today.
In the 14-page order, the court has said that there is no material to infer that applicants hatched conspiracy to commit offence. "There is hardly any positive evidence on record to convince this Court that all the accused persons with common intention agreed to commit unlawful act. Rather the investigation carried out till this date suggests that Applicant/Accused nos. 1 & 2 (Aryan and Merchant) were travelling independent of Applicant/Accused no. 3 (Dhamecha) and there was no meeting of minds on the aforesaid issue," the court has said.
It has said that it is difficult to infer at this stage that applicants are involved in an offence of commercial quantity. The single bench of Justice Nitin Sambre has said the while the NCB argued that confessional statements can be relied upon at this stage, it can also be considered only for purpose of investigation.
"...it is worth to clarify here that such confessional statements can be considered by the investigating agency only for the investigation purpose and cannot be used as a tool for drawing an inference that Applicants have committed an offence under the NDPS Act as has been alleged against them," the court has said.
State BJP chief Chandrakant Patil on Saturday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to repeal the three farm laws as the latter was left with no other choice. Patil added that such a decision will prove detrimental for the farmers.
Patil said, “We still believe farm laws were necessary. These laws were framed keeping the welfare of farmers in mind. The implementation of the farm laws would have brought prosperity to farmers.
“Unfortunately, Prime minister Narendra Modi had to repeal these farm laws under unavoidable circumstances. There was no alternative.”
Hours after the Centre announced its decision to repeal three contentious farm laws, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday advised the Union government to henceforth take other parties into confidence to avoid such "afterthoughts and embarrassment" in future.
The announcement of repealing the three farm laws underscores the power of common man in the country. The Union government should hold talks and take other parties into confidence to avoid the afterthoughts and embarrassments like today," Thackeray said in a statement while welcoming the Centre's decision.
The Congress has decided to organise victory marches across the state on Saturday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the decision to repeal the farm laws. The AICC has sent directives to all states to hold marches.Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief spokesperson Atul Londhe said, “This is a victory of the farmers and happened due to the firm support of Congress under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi.’’ The main celebration is at state Congress headquarters at Tilak Bhavan.
Three days before the Bombay High Court is expected to pass an order on IRS officer Sameer Wankhedes’ father’s interim plea seeking NCP Minister Nawab Malik be restrained from making defamatory remarks against him and his family, Malik kept up with his attack on the officer on Friday.
Malik alleged that Sameer, the NCB Mumbai Zonal Unit Director, had violated central civil services (conduct) rules by owning a restaurant and bar in Navi Mumbai in spite of being in service. Service rules do not permit government officials to own businesses.
Calling it “politics of blackmail and terror”, Shiv Sena on Friday alleged that the BJP has stalled an agreement with the striking employees of the Maharahstra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) in the same manner it has stalled the appointment of 12 MLCs that remains pending with Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari.
“The Opposition is well aware that the merger of MSRTC with the state government is not possible at present. The workers have also accepted this fact but they have been cornered by BJP leaders. The way BJP has stalled the approval of the file on 12 MLCs, the MSRTC employees’ strike is also stuck. This is the politics of terror and blackmail,” said the editorial in Shiv Sena mouthpiece Saamana.
As the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) workers’ strike entered its 23rd day on Friday, the corporation has started suspending more staffers and are in process of hiring candidates who were on the recruitment waiting list.
On Friday, services of 238 temporary employees were terminated and 297 employees were suspended, taking the total suspensions to 2,776 of the odd 94,000 staffers.
Earlier this week, around 100 candidates who were on the corporation’s recruitment wait list were hired. As many as 2,500 such candidates could be hired, said officials.(With Vallabh Ozarkar)
Dr Vishaka Shinde arrested under section 304 (culpable homicide) in the Ahmednagar fire, got her bail on Friday. She will be released tomorrow.
Amravati City Police Commissioner Arti Singh allowed internet services to be restored Friday afternoon and passed an order to lift the curfew in the city from 9 am to 6 pm. From now, the curfew will begin again at 6 pm and end at 9 am.
The Indian Express had reported Friday that the decision on the issues will be taken today. The city has been under curfew for seven days since Saturday last week soon after violence erupted during a bandh called by BJP.
Thursday, the curfew was relaxed between 11 am to 5 am only for essential services like buying groceries, medicines and vegetables. Government services like banks resumed and government employees were allowed to go to their workplaces.
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A major fire broke out on the first floor of a four-storey mall in suburban Vile Parle on Friday, injuring one person. Sixteen fire engines, 11 water tankers, one turn table ladder, a breathing apparatus van and an ambulance were pressed into service. The fire was finally doused at 2:58 pm.
The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) is preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed 766-km bullet train corridor between Mumbai and Nagpur. The DPR is expected to be submitted to the government in early next year. Officials said a series of surveys, including the lidar survey, aerial survey, social impact assessment (SIA) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), have been completed for the Mumbai-Nagpur bullet train project. “The data collected is being analysed for the DPR,” said an official.
The bullet train project will pass through 10 districts. Land would be needed to be acquired in some districts, said officials.
THE INITIAL assessment of the Maharashtra police on the violence that broke out in Amravati, Malegaon and Nanded is that it was not a planned act but a “spur of the moment reaction” of 80-100 persons who were part of an 8000-strong mob that had gathered on Friday to protest against violence faced by Muslims in Tripura.
The probe has also not found indications of planned violence in Amravati on Saturday, when around 6,000 persons from the BJP and Hindutva organisations took to the streets and two shops and four vehicles were gutted.
The police are, however, still looking for some of the accused, whose questioning will help bring more clarity on the cause of the violence. (Read more here)
The Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Maharashtra Police not to take coercive action against Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Pravin Darekar, who is chairman of the Mumbai District Central Cooperative Bank, commonly known as Mumbai Bank.
Darekar, along with other office-bearers, is booked for allegedly causing a loss of over Rs 100 crore to the bank by fraud and embezzlement of funds. The HC granted protection to Darekar till the next hearing on December 2.
A single-judge bench of Justice Sandeep K Shinde was hearing the plea by Darekar against magistrate and sessions court orders which had cleared the way for the probe.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday said that it will pronounce on Monday an order in an ad-interim plea filed by NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede’s father Dhyandev, seeking injunction against NCP Minister Nawab Malik from posting or publishing defamatory content or material against him or his family on any form of media.
The single judge bench of Justice Madhav Jamdar, taking on record three documents produced by Malik and two by Dhyandev, said, “Parties requested not to produce anything till Monday. Order to be pronounced on November 22 at 5.30 pm.”
The bench, on November 12, had reserved its verdict on the ad-interim plea filed by Dhyandev, who has filed a defamation suit against Malik seeking Rs 1.25 crore in damages.
The Bombay High Court pulled up authorities for "singling out a particular Sikh religious institution by refusing it a permission to conduct religious rituals pertaining to Guru Nanak Jayanti, which will be celebrated on Friday, November 19.
The Court asked the police authorities and Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation (UMC) to allow petitioners to conduct a four-hour Prabhat-Pheri on Friday morning wherein a group of people carry holy Guru Granth Sahib followed by devotees performing Kirtan.
The HC directed the authorities to allow the community to conduct rituals outside Gurudwara, after it was assured that all Covid-19 protocols would be strictly followed while taking out Prabhat Pheri between 6 am to 10 am on Friday.
A fire broke out in the garage of an automobile showroom in suburban Powai, officials said. There was no report of any casualty, they said.
The blaze erupted in the garage of Sai Auto Hyundai Showroom, located on Saki Vihar Road in Powai, around 11 am, officials said.
Five fire engines and water tankers along with firefighters were rushed to the spot, a fire brigade official said. (PTI)
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed a plea by Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL), and set aside the order of a special court rejecting the plea seeking discharge in the cheating and corruption case involving its promoters, Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, and Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor.
DHFL had argued that since it had undergone Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) and a new entity Piramal Capital and Housing FInance Ltd had taken over as successful applicant, it should be absolved and discharged from all earlier liabilities, including criminal proceedings registered against it prior to CIRP. However, the special CBI court had rejected its plea for discharge, prompting DHFL to approach the HC. Read more
The Supreme Court Thursday set aside the Bombay High Court order that held that “skin-to-skin” contact was necessary for the offence of sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.
A bench headed by Justice U U Lalit observed that sexual intent is important in such cases and that it can’t be taken away from the purview of the Act. The purpose of the law cannot be to allow the offender to escape the meshes of the law, the apex court said.
The bench also comprising Justices Ravindra Bhat and Bela M Trivedi said that restricting ‘touch’ or ‘physical contact’ under Section 7 of POCSO to “skin to skin contact” will lead to absurd interpretations, and will destroy the intent of the Act that was brought to protect children. For instance, it pointed out that going by the HC interpretation, a person who uses gloves etc while groping a child cannot be held liable under the Act. Read more
A fire broke out in the garage of an automobile showroom in suburban Powai on Thursday, officials said.
There was no report of any casualty, they said.
The blaze erupted in the garage of Sai Auto Hyundai Showroom, located on Saki Vihar Road in Powai, around 11 am, officials said.
Five fire engines and water tankers along with firefighters were rushed to the spot and efforts were still on to douse the blaze, a fire brigade official said. (PTI)