Shah’s remand extended to Jan 29

Shah’s counsel V R Manohar asked the court today to allow his client copies of the FIR and Remand Applicaton (RA) as well as legal interview. The copies of the FIR and remand applications were handed over to Shah and Rizvi before the court.

The judge in his order said there is no specific provision in the Criminal Procedure Code 1973 or even under MCOCA 1999 to furnish certified copies of the RA to the accused. He said the foremost question was whether an accused has a right to inspect an application for remand. He said the copy of the recent order passed by the HC was not brought to his attention except the operative part which allows Shah the liberty to apply for bail with the copies of FIR and RA subject to deletions under Section 19 of MCOCA.

The judge also allowed Shah legal interview with one of his team lawyers, Shiraz Rahimtulla for an hour with prior appointment of the investigating officer. Salian stoutly objected to the fact that Shah had a “conference” on January 20, 2001 and his battery of advocates were creating a “mess”. She said the HC order only stressed on a “lawyer ” and not in the plural. However Shah’s other counsel Shirish Gupte said the prosecution was out to deny Shah the right to legal assistance.

Yet another counsel Amit Desai said there is no restriction on the number of lawyers who can visit him and the prosecution had only sought identification for security reasons. The judge sardonically remarked.“You can take a hundred if you say there is no restriction.” The judge said he would abide by the order which implies only one lawyer and would allow Shah to decide who he prefers. Shah was summoned to the witness box and asked,“Who would you like to meet?” To this a puzzled Shah replied,“I can talk to anyone. I don’t know. They can decide.” The judge asked him to consult his son, after which Shah said Rahimtoola would visit him.

The defence counsels argued that the FIR and remand of Shah were almost fully blanked out when all the prosecution had to do is to hide the names and addresses of victims. They said the prosecution had only served the remand of January 18, 2001 and today and not of January 8, 2001 when Shah was first arrested. Gupte said,“Five paragraphs have been deleted at a stretch. Surely it could not contain names and addresses. My client is a co-accused and not a witness and will not be able defend himself properly.”

However Salian retorted,“Protection to witnesses also involves any material which has a tendency to reveal indentity. We know how witnesses have been shot dead and even in a number of TADA cases at initial stages. Later what will happen who knows,”she said. The judge ruled that the investigating agency was not obliged to disclose in details lest it hamper investigation.

The judge said that since the investigations were at a premature stage he would comment on its merit. He quoted the SC which said that the judiciary should not interfere in investigations which are at a premature stage. He said that Shah was not held merely on suspicion but on the basis of material gathered against him.

After going through the investigation progess report, the judge noted that Shah was involved in a conspiracy with an organisd crime syndicate to target a victim of extortion. He said taped conversations were played before Shah of his conversation with Karachi based gangster Chhotal Shakeel and he had admitted to the voice being his.

The judge said the discussions centred around an amount, Rs 5 crore, which “Shakeel’s boss” Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar had sought from an extortion victim.Shah had admitted knowing the victim since 15 years. The victim had approached Shah requesting him to settle and expressed his inability to pay. Shah appeared to have advised the victim not to back out of a commitment made to the organised crime syndicate. The victim had agreed initially to pay Rs 20 lakh and a cousin agreed to paying another Rs 60 lakh. The judge said the talks also referred to “pressure tactics” adopted against a producer who had the courage not to pay up. The judge, in conclusion, said prima facie that there was a “deep-rooted conspiracy” between Shah and Shakeel together with Rizvi.