Why no charge sheet against Sena MP? HC
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday directed the Maharashtra government to explain why the proposals seeking permission to file charge sheet against Shiv Sena member of parliament (MP) Chandrakant Khaire, for abusing a revenue official for carrying out demolition of illegal religious shrines, were kept pending for the past three years.
“This is something very shocking,” said the bench of justice Abhay Oka and justice Mahesh Sonak. “The investigation is complete but the proposals for filing the charge-sheet are pending only because an MP is involved.”
The judges were irked to note that the commissioner of police of Aurangabad has submitted two proposals - on December 2, 2015 and August 31, 2017 to the state government seeking permission to file the charge sheet, but no decision was taken on the proposals as yet. The bench also directed the government to explain the delay in demolition of illegal shrines across the state.
Originally, the court had fixed the deadline of August 2016 for identification and demolition of all the illegal shrines across the state. The deadline was then extended to October 2016. The state then came up with an elaborated plan and had assured that the task will be completed by December 2017. It has, however, filed a plea seeking further extension of time for implementing the court orders.
Petitioner Bhagwanji Raiyani, who has filed the public interest litigation (PIL) seeking demolition of all illegal religious shrines across the state, opposed the plea saying reasonably time had already been granted to the state.
The bench responded by saying that it was not inclined to grant extension of time, as sought by the state. It wants to initiate contempt proceedings against the government officials concerned if it finds there was no reasonable justification for the delay in execution of the court orders.