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Gangster Sharad Mohol murder case:HC declares arrest of Vitthal Shelar illegal, orders his release on bail
The Bombay high court deemed gangster Vitthal Shelar's arrest illegal in a murder case, ordering his release on bail due to violation of legal procedures.
MUMBAI: The Bombay high court has recently declared the arrest of gangster Vitthal Shelar in the high-profile murder of his rival, gangster Sharad Mohol, in Pune as illegal and ordered the authorities to release him on bail.
The division bench of justice Bharati Dangre and justice Shyam C Chandak held that Shelar was produced before a judicial magistrate beyond the stipulated period of 24 hours after his arrest - in violation of the constitutional safeguard and therefore he was entitled to be released on bail.
The murder took place in the afternoon of January 5, 2024, when Mohol was proceeding to Dagdusheth Ganpati Mandir along with three others. According to the police, one Sahil Polekar aka and two unknown persons accompanying him shot dead Mohol and also fired at one of his accomplices. Though Shelar was not named in the FIR, his name was added in the list of accused in the case on January 13, and two days later, he was apprehended in Vashi, Navi Mumbai.
Shelar had approached the high court, questioning the legality of his arrest, claiming that he was illegally detained after arrest and was produced before a magistrate court after the stipulated limit of 24 hours, and therefore his arrest was illegal and he was entitled to be released on bail.
According to his lawyers, Shelar was apprehended in Vashi along with some other persons around 1.00am on January 15, 2024 and even the general diary entry of the Vashi police station showed that he was taken in custody around 3.56am, but was produced before the magistrate court in Pune around 3.45pm on January 16, 2024.
The Pune police, however, claimed that after his apprehension in Vashi, Shelar was taken to Pune crime branch in the morning of January 15, 2024, and was allowed to leave around noon after his preliminary interrogation. They added that he was instructed to return to the crime branch by 3.30pm and thereafter he was interrogated again and was formally placed under arrest around 7.30pm after his involvement in the crime became clear.
The high court, however, refused to accept the claim and said they were “really surprised with the approach of the Investigating Officer,” who allowed an accused in a murder case in which MCOCA was invoked and who was apprehended after an intense search for over two days, to leave the police premises, with a direction to return back in few hours.
The judges said the claim was “hard to digest” and therefore held that Shelar was not produced before the jurisdictional judicial magistrate within 24 hours of his arrest early in the morning of January 15, 2024. They said the attempt on part of the investigating officer to submit that Shelar was a free man till the time of his arrest at 7.30pm on January 16, 2024 was a “bald-lie”.
The court took note of the safeguard provided in Article 22 (2) which mandates that every person who is arrested and detained in custody shall be produced before the nearest Magistrate within a period of 24 hours of such arrest, excluding the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the court and therefore declared Shelar’s arrest illegal.
The court has ordered Shelar to be released on bail on conditions set out by the trial court.
Shelar is a well-known gangster from the Mulshi area and has in the past serious crimes like murder, attempted murder and extortion registered against him and in 2014, was booked under the MCOCA.
According to the police, Shelar was part of the Marne gang but after the death of Kishor Marne, he formed his own syndicate and there was rivalry between Shelar and Mohol over the latter’s dominance in the area.
