Court slaps 10K penalty on man for successive pre-arrest pleas

A sessions court in Dindoshi has imposed a penalty of Rs. 10,000 on a 34-yearold in a case of assault on a policeman, for making successive anticipatory bail pleas without change in circumstances.

Additional Sessions Judge SU Baghele in his order passed on Friday directed that the amount be deposited before the court for being credited to the state under the head of penalty.

Goregaon resident Khwaja Qureishi had made the plea before the court without any change in circumstances after his previous plea was rejected by the court. Qureishi had approached the Bombay High Court after the first plea’s rejection and it too had denied him relief. He had then made a second plea, again seeking protection from arrest, but without any change in circumstances.

The police had opposed his application and stated that two witnesses had given statements that Qureishi had assaulted a policeman on his chest, due to which the latter had fallen. He had then taken the cop’s baton and hit him with it.

While rejecting Qureishi’s plea on 25 September last year after seeing a video clip of the assault, the court had said that investigation was required as the offence is serious which it called prima-facie apparent from the video clip.