Court grants default bail to interpreter arrested in graft case

MUMBAI: A court granted bail to interpreter Vishal Sawant in a graft case due to the prosecution's failure to file a chargesheet within 60 days.

MUMBAI: A special Prevention of Corruption Act court on Tuesday granted default bail to an interpreter at the Small Causes Court, arrested in connection with a graft case, after the investigating officer failed to file a chargesheet within the stipulated days of sixty days.

Court grants default bail to interpreter arrested in graft case

The accused, Vishal Chandrakant Sawant, works as an interpreter at the Small Causes Court. He demanded a bribe from a hotelier in return for help in settling a pending case of hotel ownership rights in his favour. The hotelier complained with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, who laid a trap at a hotel in the LT Mark area in September to catch Sawant red-handed accepting a bribe of ₹25 lakh. According to the FIR, ₹5 lakh of the ₹25 lakh were dummy currency.

Sawant moved the plea on the grounds that the allegations were false, and that no chargesheet has been filed since the day of his arrest. The prosecution is required to file chargesheet within the stipulated time of 60 days from the date of his production before the court, but the investigating officer has not filed a chargesheet so far, which gives him a right to claim default bail. Sawant’s advocate submitted that a further thirty days have passed after the lapse of sixty days.

The prosecution submitted that Sawant might pressurize the witnesses if he is released on bail since he is an official of the court. They argued that the investigation is going on, and they would file the chargesheet upon receiving sanction from the competent authority.

As per provisions granted under section 187 (procedure when investigation cannot be completed in twenty-four hours) of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, Sawant has the right to apply for bail and his indefeasible bail shall not be defeated till the chargesheet is submitted, said special sessions judge SB Joshi. The court said he is entitled to bail on account of default on the part of the investigating agency in filing charge-sheet for the offence in question within the stipulated period.