Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today (Mar 18, 2004) refused to hear the bail plea of former police commissioner R S Sharma and Andhra Pradesh MLA (Member of Legislative Assembly) C B Krishna Yadav, arrested under a stringent law in the fake stamp paper scam.

Justice Vijaya Kapse Tahilramani said "not before me" and forwarded the petitions to Chief Justice C K Thakker who will assign the matter to some other judge.

The judge refused to hear the bail petitions as she had defended Sharma in his capacity as a police officer when she was the public prosecutor some years ago.

Both the accused urged the High Court for bail on the ground that Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) was not applicable to them.

Earlier, the trial court in Pune rejected their bail plea. Being aggrieved, they moved the High Court.

The High Court recently rejected Sharma's petition challenging applicability of MCOCA on him and other accused and also turned down his plea questioning the appointment of S S Puri as the head of special investigating team (SIT) to probe the scam.

Sharma, in his bail petition, pleaded that MCOCA was not attracted in his case. The SIT had not applied its mind while booking him in this case on the charge of allegedly shielding prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi, he argued.

He argued that the sanction accorded by DIG-SRPF (Deputy Inspector General-Special Reserve Police Force), Subodh Jaiswal to prosecute him under MCOCA was not proper because Jaiswal was a member of SIT team probing the scam. The sanction should have been accorded by some independent person, Sharma said.

C B Krishna Yadav contended that the alleged telephonic tapes recorded by police was not relevant piece of evidence because the telephonic talks between him and others were held outside Maharashtra.

MCOCA was a State Act and could not be invoked on him, he argued while urging for bail.

He also submitted that the alleged telephonic talk between him and prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi was recorded by SIT in 1998 and MCOCA came into existence in 1999. Therefore, MCOCA could not be invoked on him.

Yadav, former Sports Minister of Andhra Pradesh, is charged with helping the prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi in, expanding his illegal business of circulating fake stamps in the State.

According to charge sheet filed by SIT, he allegedly kidnapped two associates of Telgi and demanded Rs two crore to release them. The duo was let off after Rs 32 lakhs was paid by Telgi.