HC denies bail to cop held for kidnapping

An Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court last week rejected a temporary bail application filed by former state service police officer Manoj Prabhakar Lohar who

An Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court last week rejected a temporary bail application filed by former state service police officer Manoj Prabhakar Lohar who has been convicted for kidnapping for ransom and sentenced to life imprisonment.

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Lohar had sought temporary bail on health grounds, contending that he is a cancer survivor and that recently he has undergone a heart surgery and the ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator) implantation required follow-up treatment at Mumbai.

It was also argued on his behalf that since several persons lodged at Arthur Road jail in Mumbai were found infected with Covid-19, being a heart patient, the former police officer apprehended that he may also be exposed to the deadly virus.

The argument, however, failed to impress upon the bench of justice TV Nalawade and justice Shrikant Kulkarni. The judges found the period of follow-up after the heart surgery was already over and a fresh report by jail authorities stated that the petitioner was in sound health condition and leading a normal life.

Besides the bench also noted that just three months back, on April 3, 2019, another bench also headed by justice TV Nalawade, has rejected applications filed by Lohar, who was working as additional superintendent of police at Chalisgaon in Jalgaon district, and his purported agent, Dhiraj Yeole, a local resident, for suspension of a substantive sentence handed down to them and grant of bail.

Both of them have been convicted last year by Jalgaon sessions court for kidnapping a local politician, Uttamrao Mahajan, the principal of an Ayurvedic medical college at Chalisgaon in June 2009, and demanding a ransom of about ₹60 lakh for his release. Mahajan, according to the prosecution, was detained illegally and let off only after the superintendent of police, Jalgaon intervened in the matter.

HC noted that there was no change in circumstances after the order dated April 3, 2019, when the bench headed by justice Nalawade rejected his bail plea saying that releasing them on bail will send a wrong signal to the public at large and such persons need to be kept behind bars so as to send a strong message to others indulging in similar offences.

“These days police officers like the accused (Lohar) are virtually acting as leaders of gangs of dacoit,” HC had said in April 3, 2019 order. “It can be said that people fear police like accused more than the dacoits who commit road robberies or housebreakings.”