Man who provided SIM cards challenges stay of bail order

Naresh Gaur, who was granted bail last month by the trial court in the Antilia bomb scare and Mansukh Hiran murder case, has approached the Bombay High Court challenging the order of the special court staying his bail for 25 days. The 31-year-old, who was arrested by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in March, is the first among 10 accused in the case to secure bail. A special NIA court, on November 20, granted him bail after observing that prima facie he did not seem to be aware of the conspiracy. However, the special court stayed its own order for 25 days after the prosecution requested, saying it wished to challenge the bail before an appellate court. An aggrieved Gaur filed a petition before the HC through his advocate Aniket Nikam, terming the stay order as “bad in law” and “against the principle of natural justice”.

Besides, his plea contends that the special court, after considering the chargesheet in the case, had granted him bail observing that “the petitioner (Gaur) had no active knowledge of the conspiracy”. In view of this, the special court should not have stayed his bail and continued his incarceration.

Gaur also argued in his plea that he had merely bought a SIM card that was subsequently used by dismissed police officer Sachin Vaze in the said cases. He said he had no idea of the larger conspiracy and he had never been directly contacted by Vaze. The plea will be heard before a bench of Justice SK Shinde on December 7.

Naresh Gaur is the first of the 10 accused to secure bail in the case