Calling it merely an act of gaining cheap publicity, Bombay High Court rapped a lawyer over filing a plea seeking unbiased probe against Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh and former Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh.
The plea was filed by lawyer Jayshree Patil and was heard by a division bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale.
“You have a doctorate in criminology. Show a single paragraph in your petition that you have drafted. Except extracting some paragraphs from a (Param Bir Singh’s) letter and taking some paragraphs from orders of Supreme Court, what is your contribution? What is your original pleading? What is your locus? We are of the opinion that such petitions are drafted for cheap publicity,” the bench said.
“Prima facie we are of opinion that such petitions are filed for cheap popularity. It is unacceptable,” the High Court said.
In the petition, Patil had sought an “unbiased, uninfluenced, impartial and fair probe” in the various corrupt malpractices of Anil Deshmukh as per the allegations posed by Param Bir Singh either through CBI or any other independent investigation agency.
She also alleged that both of them had acted in breach of their professional duties during the entire episode of an explosives-laden SUV found near industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s residence in Mumbai, the death of the vehicle’s owner Mansukh Hiran, the arrest of Mumbai police officer Sachin Waze and related events.
Jayshree Patil also mentioned that she had lodged a complaint in Malabar Hill police station in connection to the allegations but no FIR was registered.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni submitted before the court that the complaint is pending before the police station. Referring to Patil’s plea, Advocate General Kumbhakoni said, “But please look at the petition. Even the fonts have not been changed while copy-pasting. Such a shoddy work has been done by the petitioner.”
AG Kumbhakoni also told the court that Param Bir Singh had also approached the High Court and his plea would be taken up for hearing by the Chief Justice on Wednesday.
Taking note of the fact that multiple petitions have been filed in connection to the Antilia Bomb Scare case, the High Court bench has asked AG Kumbhakoni to get all the petitions clubbed together in order to avoid the possibility of inconsistent orders.
