Court grants advocate Jayshri Patil protection from arrest

The Gamdevi police had on April 8 arrested 109 MSRTC employees, including 23 women, for allegedly throwing stones, shoes and chappals at Pawar’s house

Mumbai Mumbai sessions court on Monday granted interim protection from arrest to advocate Jayshri Patil, who is named along with her husband advocate Gunratna Sadavarte, as an accused in the violent protests outside Silver Oak, the Malabar Hill residence of Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar.

The police had claimed that Patil had played a crucial role in instigating the protesting MSRTC employees (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

The Gamdevi police had on April 8 arrested 109 MSRTC employees, including 23 women, for allegedly throwing stones, shoes and chappals at Pawar’s house, claiming that the NCP chief did nothing to fulfil their demands. The police claimed Sadavarte and his wife Patil had instigated the MSRTC employees to attack Pawar’s residence.

The police had claimed that Patil had played a crucial role in instigating the protesting MSRTC employees and that she was part of a conspiracy meeting that took place a day before the incident on the terrace of Sadavarte.

Apprehending arrest in the case, Patil moved for anticipatory bail claiming that she is “completely innocent and falsely implicated.”

“The FIR deals with a completely different incident and the allegations against the present applicant are not at all connected to the alleged incident in the FIR,” her pre-arrest bail plea stated. “The FIR and the investigation is a product of political vendetta and the applicant and her husband, both professional lawyers, have been implicated in order to malign their image,” it added.

“The bare perusal of the FIR would reveal none of the offences as alleged in the FIR are prima facie made out,” she has claimed, adding, “The applicant has not given any speech nor was she present at the alleged spot of the incident.”

She added that considering these facts, her custodial interrogations were absolutely not necessary and that she was ready to cooperate.

Additional sessions judge R M Sadrani granted interim protection from arrest to Patil and adjourned the matter for further hearing to April 29, 2022.

Additional sessions judge R M Sadrani on Monday granted Patil interim protection from arrest and posted her plea for further hearing on April 29 after assistant public prosecutor Abhijit Gondwal sought time to file reply to the pre-arrest bail plea.