HC asks top cop to decide on MCOCA

wo years after a special court acquitted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's brother Iqbal Kaskar in the Sara Sahara case, the Bombay high court reopened the case on Thursday. Facing the heat this time are three senior BMC officers-assistant commissioner Rajendra Vale, executive engineer Devnath Kurmi and assistant engineer D G Tambulwadkar-for allegedly allowing the illegal construction of the sprawling Sara Sahara shopping complex near Crawford Market on a CPWD plot that was reserved for a municipal school. A division bench of Justice B H Marlapalle and Justice Roshan Dalvi directed Mumbai police commissioner D Sivanandan to take a decision by December 15 on whether to prosecute the three civic officers under MCOCA or not. "Closing the cases against the three officers resulted in the miscarriage of justice,'' said the bench. "This court must step in to set the criminal law in motion.'' The court, however, gave a clean chit to deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, who had allegedly dissuaded the police from arresting the officers. The court's verdict came following a petition filed by a MCOCA accused, Ketan Tirodkar, that claimed that despite the recommendation of the investigating officer, approval was not granted to prosecute the three officers, owing to political pressure. Tirodkar, in his petition, said investigating officer Shankar Kamble had sought permission to arrest Vale, Kurmi and Tambulwadkar. This was endorsed by the deputy commissioner and the special public prosecutor Rohini Salian. Joint commissioner of police Meera Borwankar, in an affidavit however, said there was no material incriminating the three officials. In his notings, Kamble mentioned that he was asked to "go slow'' on the arrests as the authorities feared protests from the BMC union. The HC said the police commissioner had not scrutinised the officials' case. "By closing the case, the course of justice was thwarted,'' said the judges.

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