Wednesday, March 16 2005 13:26 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court today (Mar 16, 2005) disposed of a petition filed by Gutkha baron Jagdish Joshi urging for quashing of non-bailable warrants issued by Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court for failing to appear before CBI in a case of alleged links with the underworld.

CBI, which is investigating the case, informed the High Court that the purpose of the warrant had been served as Joshi had appeared before it a couple of times after his return from UAE on February 25.

CBI said that the warrant was no longer required as Joshi was appearing before the agency regularly and was cooperating with the investigations.

Justice R M S Khandeparkar and Justice P V Kakade observed that the MCOCA court should decide about the status of the warrant as Joshi had appeared before CBI on several occasions for questioning regarding his alleged links with the underworld.

The judges opined that the special court had issued the warrant and that court alone should decide Joshi's plea for cancellation of warrant.

Joshi had earlier appeared before the MCOCA court and urged for cancellation of warrant.

One of the accused in the gutkha case had alleged that Joshi and another gutka king Rasiklal Manikchand Dhariwal had helped Pakistan-based don Dawood Ibrahim in establishing gutkha business in the neighbouring country.

He had also alleged that Dawood had settled their business dispute.