Cruise bribery case: Sameer Wankhede gets interim protection from arrest till June 28; HC calls for case diary from CBI

Thereafter, the court on May 22 continued interim protection to Wankhede till June 8 by laying down conditions, including ‘no press statements’ by him in the case. On June 8, the court extended interim protection to Wankhede till June 23.

According to CBI, it had registered the FIR on the basis of a written complaint forwarded by superintendent (vigilance) of NCB on May 11, along with an approval required for initiating action under Section 17A of Prevention of Corruption Act against a public servant. The basis of the complaint was an inquiry conducted by NCB’s SET.

Wankhede, however, amended his petition and through senior advocate Aabad Ponda said that “central agencies do not have a lawful prior sanction as required” as per Section 17A of the Act, as the sanction was availed from the Home Ministry, while Wankhede was employed under Finance Ministry.

After Advocate Kuldeep Patil representing the CBI sought vacation of interim protection, the bench said that once CBI had issued a notice under section 41A of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC), it showed there was no intention to arrest him. Thereafter, it asked the agency to inform it, if it intended to arrest the petitioner, and if it did, it could give him a 48-hour notice prior to taking coercive action to seek remedy as per law.

The CBI counsel argued that the petitioner can approach the sessions court seeking pre-arrest bail. However, the bench responded, “You give notice that you will give 48 hours before arresting him. We will relegate him to the sessions court. You are a prime investigating agency. Why are you playing hide and seek? Why are you shying away from saying whether you want to arrest him or not?” the court said.

However, the CBI counsel said that the interim protection was granted without arguments in the case and while the central agency does not want to arrest Wankhede now, the court should not restrict it.

The court then sought a case diary of the probe from CBI to examine whether the stage of arrest has been reached in the case. However, Patil argued that while such a stage may not have reached, the court ought not to have shown distrust in the agency and submitted that the case diary will be submitted by Tuesday, June 27.

“The insistence to not make a statement (that you don’t want to arrest him) is raising serious doubts. How do we know you are maintaining the diary properly? You have three days (to submit it)…” the bench said.