2022 saw political slugfests in Maharashtra courtrooms, cases against 'Maoists'

Political turmoil in Maharashtra spilled over to the courts in 2022 with the arrests of leaders like Sanjay Raut Nawab Malik and independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana in different cases and subsequent legal battles over their bail applicationsThe courts also dealt with litigation related to the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case of 2017 with some of the accused getting reliefIn February Nationalist Congress Party NCP leader and former minister in the then Maha Vikas Aghadi MVA government Nawab Malik moved the Bombay High Court seeking to quash an alleged money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement DirectorateThe ED case is related to a land deal in Mumbai in which associates of fugitive gangster Dawood Ibrahim were involved Maliks plea is still pendingIn March the ED arrested Malik in the case and subsequently a special court for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA cases rejected his bail applications Malik has now moved the High Court for bailAlso read Maharashtra Deputy CM BJP legislators attend Sangh program in NagpurApril saw another highprofile case when Mumbai Police arrested Navneet Rana and her husband MLA Ravi Rana after they announced that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackerays private residence Matoshree in MumbaiAbout ten days later the couple was granted bail by a courtBut arguably the case that dominated headlines the most was that of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay RautThe highprofile Shiv Sena Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader was arrested by the ED in July in a money laundering case linked to alleged fraud in the redevelopment project of a iquestchawliquest tenementRaut spent more than 100 days in prison before the special PMLA court granted him bail The judge also termed his arrest as iquestillegal without reason and a witchhuntOn October 4 NCP leader and former Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh obtained bail in another money laundering case being probed by the EDOn December 12 Deshmukh was granted bail by the HC in an alleged corruption case registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation CBIDeshmukh however is yet to be released as the court stayed the bail order to enable the central agency to file an appeal in the Supreme courtTrials in the 2008 Malegaon blast case and 2012 Sheena Bora murder continued Some prosecution witnesses turned hostile in the Malegaon case where BJP MP Pragya Thakur is a prime accusedIn February 2022 Justice Pushpa Ganediwala who had faced flak over the interpretation in a few of her judgements of the term sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act POCSOA resignedFollowing her problematic judgments delivered in January and February 2021 the Supreme Court collegium had withdrawn its recommendation to appoint her as a permanent HC judgeIn April 2022 the High Court was hearing a plea filed by activist Gautam Navlakha arrested in the Elgar Parishad Maoist links case seeking that he be put under house arrest instead of being kept in prison owing to his health issuesThe HC was bemused when it learnt that the prison authorities had refused to hand over to him a book by English humour author P G Wodehouse sent by Navlakhas familyThe High Court though rejected Navlakhas plea for house arrest The plea was later allowed by the Supreme CourtIn April Bollywood actor Salman Khan moved the Bombay High Court challenging the summons issued to him by a magistrates court on a complaint filed by a journalist over a 2019 dispute The HC stayed the summonsIn May 2022 the High Court dismissed a default bail bail on technical grounds petition filed by activists Varavara Rao Arun Ferreira and Vernon Gonsalves accused in the Elgar Parishad caseIn September the High Court quashed a case registered against nine persons including Dadra Nagar Haveli Union Territory administrator Praful Khoda Patel for allegedly abetting the suicide of MP Mohan DelkarThe High Court observed that it was a fit case for preventing abuse of law as the grounds stated in the First Information Report were flimsy and sketchyOn September 19 the High Court rejected a bail plea filed by former Delhi University professor Hany Babu an accused in the Elgar Parishad case noting that on the face of it there was substance in the allegations against himIn September the HC directed the Mumbai civic body to demolish unauthorised construction at Union minister and BJP leader Narayan Ranes bungalow in Juhu area noting that it had violated Floor Space Index FSI and Coastal Regulation Zone CRZ rulesAnil Ambani got relief from the High Court in the same month when the court directed the Income Tax department not to take any coercive action against the industrialist on a showcause notice seeking to prosecute him under the Black Money ActOn October 14 the Nagpur bench of the HC acquitted exDelhi University professor G N Saibaba overturning his conviction in an alleged Maoist links case The order has been stayed by the Supreme Court on an appeal filed by government agenciesIn October the Bombay High Court paved the way for Rutuja Latke candidate of the Shiv Sena UBT to submit nomination for the Andheri East Assembly bypoll by directing the city civic body to accept her resignation from its service expeditiouslyOn November 18 the High Court granted bail to scholaractivist Anand Teltumbde yet another accused in the Elgar ParishadMaoist links case noting that prima facie there was no evidence to show that he was an active member of the banned terror outfit CPI Maoist or had indulged in any terrorist actBetween July to September the National Investigation Agency NIA arrested 11 people for allegedly killing Amravatibased pharmacist Umesh Kolhe for sharing social media posts backing BJP leader Nupur Sharmas controversial remarks about Prophet MohammadIn December the NIA filed a chargesheet against the accused stating that radicalized Islamists of the Tablighi Jamaat were involved in the murderThis story 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