Hc irked as CBI fails to appear for hearing
Giving a “last chance” to the CBI in the 2006 Pawanraje Nimbalkar murder case, a peeved Bombay high court on Monday said that the petition seeking cancellation of bail granted to NCP leader Padamsinh Patil should have been dismissed as the agency’s lawyer failed to appear since the last three hearings.
An irked Justice Abhay Thipsay, while adjourning the hearing till July 17, said, “Nobody is coming on behalf of CBI since the last three hearings of this petition. The petition should have been dismissed by now. If the CBI is not taking forward its own petition, why should it be kept pending?”
The court was told that the CBI counsel Ejaz Khan was not in the city. Justice Thipsay, however, said that CBI was a big organisation and if one person was not there then it could send someone else to appear.
The CBI has sought cancellation of bail to former state minister Mr Patil, on the ground that he was influencing witnesses, several of whom turned hostile during the trial at the Alibaug sessions court.
The court was also informed that 43 witnesses had been examined in the trial so far, of which 11 turned hostile. The trial has been stayed by the Supreme Court after Nimb-alkar’s wife Anandibai sought transfer of the trial out of Alibaug.
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‘Look into owner’s other dealings’
Age correspondent
Mumbai, July 8
Continuing his crusade, prominent lawyer Rizwan Merchant on Monday called upon municipal commissioner Sitaram Kunte and complained about violations carried out by Altaf Furniturewala, the owner of Altaf Manzil, in two other buildings.
According to sources, both the buildings are in Bandra. One is an under-construction structure, where Mr Furniturewala has carried out construction beyond the permissions given by the BMC and in another illegal alterations have been made.
In the statement made in the Bombay high court, the civic body has said that the probable cause of the collapse was increase on the load due to adding of tiles by the residents. Mr Merchant objected to it and said the BMC should check the facts once again.
“Merchant said that there could be an attempt by the lower level officers to mislead the commissioner. We have demanded a third party audit into to the whole incident,” said Samajwadi party group leader Rais Shaikh, who also attended the meeting.
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