The Bombay Excessive Court docket, in a reduction to BJP chief Mohit Kamboj, final week put aside the March 7, 2024 order of a periods court docket that rejected his discharge utility in reference to the 2009 case for allegedly obstructing a municipal engineer from finishing up demolition of unauthorised building on his premise in Zaveri Bazar.
Kamboj argued that whereas he was acquitted by Justice of the Peace court docket in 2016 within the case beneath the Maharashtra Regional and City Planning (MRTP) Act, after a hiatus of six years, the matter was once more unnecessarily pressed by prosecution, albeit beneath Indian Penal Code (IPC) and he can’t be tried twice on identical set of info for which offence is registered and identical would quantity to double jeopardy.
The HC handed the order on November 21, a replica of which was made out there on Friday evening.
On December 15, 2009, an FIR was filed towards Kamboj for offences beneath part 52 and 43 of the MRTP Act, primarily based on a criticism by a junior engineer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Company (BMC). Kamboj, who was arrested twice, granted bail twice, was acquitted within the case on January 20, 2016 after a full fledged trial.
A single-judge bench of Justice Milind N Jadhav famous that “surprisingly, on the identical date (December 15, 2009 round 8 pm), one other FIR was filed for offence punishable beneath part 353 (assault or felony drive to discourage a public servant from discharge of his obligation) of IPC.
As per stated FIR, the complainant sub-engineer acquired info from the junior engineer about alleged unauthorised building carried out by applicant at his premises in Zaveri Bazar and when approached for demolition together with a police group, he was allegedly obstructed.
A day earlier than, the junior engineer involved had issued statutory discover to Kamboj beneath part 354 (A) of Mumbai Municipal Company Act. The HC famous as per discover, it’s incumbent on the officer involved to attend for twenty-four hours from the discover to cease the alleged work earlier than commencing with any additional coercive motion. “It’s seen that this 24 hour deadline isn’t adopted by the company officers,” it added.
Advocate Faiz Service provider for Kamboj argued that prosecution didn’t membership each the offences collectively earlier than the trial court docket and maintained ‘stoic silence’ all through the trial and 6 years thereafter with out difficult the order of acquittal until date. Kamboj argued that the periods court docket earlier than passing an order in April this yr failed to understand that FIR beneath part 353 of IPC was nothing however an offshoot of earlier FIR beneath MRTP Act.
