HC dismisses plea of builder Lahoriya seeking transfer of trial to another court

In a setback for the son of developer Sunil Lahoriya, who was shot dead in his office, the Bombay High Court on Monday refused to transfer the trial in the case from Judge R R Vaishnav's court to some other court.

A bench of Justices Sambhaji Shinde and Manish Pitale said Lahoriya's son Sandeep failed to put forth an appealing case to show any wrong on part of the judge in dealing with the case.

The bench, however, asked Judge Vaishnav to expedite the trial and proceed with the case fairly and impartially.

The bench was seized with a plea filed by Sandeep seeking transfer of the trial from Judge Vaishnav's court. He through his counsel Himanshu Khode pointed out that the judge had refused to consider CCTV footage, wherein, his father is seen to be alive before reaching the hospital.

The judges while disposing of his plea, ordered Judge Vaishnav to consider seeing the CCTV footage at the end of the trial, provided the same is certified to be authentic under the Information & Technology (IT) act.

The plea further alleged that the judge had a huge heated argument with the prosecutor and had in fact left the court and rejected certain applications of the prosecution from his Chambers.

Notably, the HC had specifically ordered Judge Vaishnav to conduct a trial in the case, while disposing of another plea of Sandeep in August 2019.