HC: FIRST YOU COMPLAINED ABOUT TALOJA JAIL, NOW YOU WANT TO STAY

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court (HC) has refused to grant any interim relief to Elgar Parishad accused Mahesh Raut and some of the other co-accused lodged in Taloja jail who sought a stay on the special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court order permitting their transfer to Mumbai Central Prison (MCP). Raut and others moved HC against the order on the grounds they were not given an opportunity to oppose the same.

Raut’s application stated that MCP was already overcrowded and as it is far from Taloja jail, he would not able to get medicines which are provided to him by his family who live in Navi Mumbai.

The division bench of justice SS Shinde and justice NJ Jamadar was informed by advocate Vijay Hiremath that the transfer was ordered at the behest of the superintendent of Taloja jail and passed without following due procedure. The petition stated that as per prison and NIA rules, the judge had to ensure that proper procedure for transferring an undertrial prisoner was followed in the form of issuing a notice to the prisoner, giving him a chance to have his say, and then deciding on whether to transfer the prisoner. It added that the judge did not follow any of the procedures, hence his order should be set aside.

After hearing Hiremath and perusing the petition, the bench asked, “You have been filing various applications about difficulties in Taloja jail, but now you want to stay there.”

As the state and NIA informed the court they had not received copies of the petition, the court asked Hiremath to provide them with the same and posted hearing to August 11. Hiremath and advocate R Satyanarayanan sought some temporary relief till the next hearing, but the bench refused to pass any orders.