HC, Sessions defer Gawli verdict by a day

As a result of these developments in the courts today, Gawli will remain behind bars at Thane. He was arrested from his Dagdi Chawl hideout at Byculla on July 23, 1997.

Meanwhile, even as members of Gawli’s Akhil Bharatiya Sena protest the “flimsy grounds” on which he was arrested, section of the Mumbai police is preparing to move the Supreme Court if the High Court rules in favour of Gawli tomorrow.

Senior police officers told Express Newsline that the police was determined to take the matter to the SC if Gawli was released on bail.Justice A S Venkatachala Moorthy will, on Wednesday, hear the state government’s application seeking stay on the bail order by the Sessions Court directing the police to release Gawli and two of his aides Suresh D Bhaskar and Raju Philips. The stay was extended today after Public Prosecutor V T Tulpule told the court that certified copies of yesterday’s Sessions Court order and the English translation of Gawli’s remand application were not available. Therefore, the state government asked for additional 24 hours to present their case. At the Sessions court, arguing on Gawli’s anticipatory bail application advocate A G Subnis attacked the first information report (FIR) filed by Gajre with the Agripada police station. Gajre had complained to the police that Gawli and six of his aides forcibly evicted her from her room in Dagdi Chawl and also threatened to kill her in April 1990.

“Why did she wait for seven years to lodge the FIR? If she feared for her life for as long as seven years when Gawli was in the jail, why she is not scared today when he is free?” asked Subnis. He also argued that Gajre had not told any of her relatives about the incident. She had neither named any witnesses in the FIR nor any property has been recovered mentioned in the FIR, it was stated. He also maintained that Gawli was neither likely to abscond nor to tamper with the evidence and therefore, requested the judge to grant anticipatory bail.

For the first time, without taking Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray’s name, Subnis said that Gawli’s influential political rivals were trying to implicate him in false criminal cases.

While opposing the bail on a technicality, chief public prosecutor D G Paranjape said that the application was not affirmed by Gawli and thus could not stand in the court of law. Advocate Ashok Patil, arguing during the afternoon session in absence of Subnis, got furious on the argument and asked Paranjape to argue on merits of the case.

Paranjape said that the question of Gawli’s political rival does not arise as the Akhil Bharatiya Sena was formed only recently. He said if Gawli was remanded to police custody, many witnesses were likely to come forward and also the police could gather more evidence in the case. He argued that Gawli was involved in various serious cases and it was likely that he would tamper with the evidence, so the anticipatory bail should not be granted. Gawli’s fate would only be decided tomorrow after the HC and the Sessions Court deliver their respective orders.