Raj Thackeray gets relief, HC quashes a criminal case

Bombay High Court on Tuesday quashed a criminal case registered against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray and five of his party men. Thackeray and his men were booked for unlawful assembly and for breaching law and order situations in the city in 2012.

This comes as a respite for Thackeray, who has several cases registered against him across Maharashtra.

The Division Bench of Justice Ranjit More and Justice Sarang Kotwal set aside the FIR and all the proceedings therein, which were initiated by the DB Marg police.

It was in August 2012 when Thackeray called for a massive rally to condemn the desecration of the Amar Jawan Jyoti memorial by some miscreants. This act, as per the police, was in violation to the provisions of unlawful assembly. Accordingly, they were booked under the provisions of the Bombay Police Act.

Urging the judges to quash the FIR and the entire case, advocate Rajendra Shirodkar argued that there was a gross delay on part of the police in filing the chargesheet. He told the judges that as per the provisions in law, the police ought to have filed the charge-sheet within 60 days but they chose to file it after two years.

Shirodkar also told the judges that the provisions invoked against Thackeray and his party-men were fine-able and were not too serious.

Interestingly, the police too accepted failure in this regard.

After considering the submissions and facts of the case, the judges quashed the FIR and all the proceedings against the MNS leader and his men.