Friday, November 11 2005 14:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, who has been booked in an extortion case by Mumbai Crime Branch, today (Nov 11, 2005) appeared in the sessions court at Mazgaon hearing his plea for anticipatory bail in an extortion case.

Hearing Gawli's plea, Judge Abhay Thipsay had yesterday asked the applicant to be present in the court after an assurance from the prosecution that they would not arrest him while appearing in the court. Gawli was allegedly involved in resolving dispute between two businessmen, one of whom later complained of extortion threat by Gawli.

However, the judge today directed both the businessmen in the dispute to appear before the court in the afternoon to record their statement and adjourned the matter till then.

Earlier, the prosecution had demanded that the applicant (Gawli) be present during the hearing while the defence refused to accept it saying it feared arrest of the applicant before appearing in the court.

On court's insistence, the prosecution had assured it would not (not) arrest the applicant, but would question him to record his statement in the case.

Police had raided Gawli's residence `Dagdi Chawl' in central Mumbai on November 8, soon after he was booked for allegedly extorting lakhs of rupees from a businessman to settle a business dispute. However, Gawli fled from the spot, police had said.

Meanwhile, police is likely to book the Chinchpokli MLA under MCOCA along with his close aide Sunil Ghate, who is also one of the accused in the extortion case.