Saturday, August 19 2006 10:41 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court yesterday (Aug 18, 2006)reprimanded Mumbai Police Commissioner A N Roy for ignoring the Court's July 27 order and granting sanction for filing chargesheet under MCOCA against three Gawli aides in an extortion case.

Saying that it was a clear case of contempt, court asked the Commissioner to file a reply in this regard by September 4.

The division bench of Justice J N Patel and Justice Roshan Dalvi had quashed an FIR against gangster Arun Gawli and four others on July 27 this year. Court also set aside sanction granted by joint commissioner of police Meera Borvankar to prosecute them under MCOCA.

The case was based on a complaint filed by businessman Shaquil Qureshi which accused Gawli of extortion. Gawli had not been arrested in the matter, but three other accused, namely Sunil Ghate, Rajendra Sadwilkar and Sadanand Panchal, were arrested, and they are still in jail.

After High Court quashed the case itself, their lawyersapplied to MCOCA court for bail on July 28. However, prosecution told the court that it wanted to file chargesheet against the three and had sought police commissioner's sanction for the purpose, as MCOCA requires.

As a result MCOCA judge M R Bhatkar rejected the bail application, and next day A N Roy granted sanction for filing chargesheet, which was duly filed.

Today, accused's lawyers filed a writ petition before the same bench, pointing out that despite HC's quashing of the FIR and sanction to apply MCOCA, Roy has granted sanction to file chargesheet under MCOCA.