Thursday, January 27 2005 17:29 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Gutka baron Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal today (Jan 27, 2005) filed a petition in a special court urging for cancellation of the non-bailable warrant issued against him for failure to appear before police in a case of alleged links with the underworld.

The petition was filed by advocate Rajendra Shirodkar in the court of designated Judge A P Bhangale who kept the matter for arguments on January 29 and asked the prosecution to file reply on that day.

The court had issued non-bailable warrants against Dhariwal, owner of "Manikchand Gutka" and Jagdish Joshi, owner of "Goa Gutka" for questioning in the case of alleged links with the underworld.

On January 24, Joshi also applied for cancellation of warrant. His plea would be heard on January 29 along with the petition of Dhariwal.

Dhariwal urged in the petition that he was an NRI and to maintain his NRI status he had to remain in foreign country for at least 180 days. Therefore, he could not come to India immediately.

He also pleaded that there was no evidence against him and that his name was mentioned in the list of accused in the chargesheet. He said he had roots in the country and was not trying to evade police.