The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed a First Information Report (FIR) and all related proceedings against former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and several other accused. The FIR, filed by Sanjay Punamiya, alleged that the accused conspired to coerce him into falsely implicating Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, and retired IPS officer Parambir Singh in an urban land ceiling scam. In exchange, they allegedly offered to drop charges against Punamiya in another case.
Court's Ruling
A division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam declared that the very registration of the FIR constituted an abuse of the legal process. The court noted that Pandey and Punamiya had never met or spoken, as stated in Pandey's petition. The FIR was filed on August 26, 2024, at Thane police station, more than three years after the alleged incident in 2021. This delay, the court observed, exposed the inauthenticity of the FIR's contents.
Arguments Presented
Senior counsel Mihir Desai, representing Pandey, argued that the FIR was solely intended to target his client and contained no substantive case. Similarly, senior counsel Rajesh Shakhdhar, representing advocate Shekhar Jagtap—another accused who successfully filed a quashing petition—contended that the FIR interfered with the administration of justice.
Punamiya, represented by counsel Rizwan Merchant, claimed he had been subjected to false charges in multiple cases and was wrongly implicated in a re-investigation of a 2016 case. He alleged that Jagtap, who was not appointed as special public prosecutor in that case, misled the Thane court in collusion with other accused, leading to the rejection of Punamiya's bail.
Relief Granted
The High Court granted similar relief to other accused who had petitioned, including Jagtap, Shyamsundar Agrawal, Sardar Patil, Kishor Bhalerao, and Manohar Patil. The court declined Punamiya's request for a two-week stay on the judgment to allow him to approach the Supreme Court.
This ruling marks a significant legal victory for the former police commissioner and the other accused, reinforcing the principle that FIRs filed with mala fide intent and undue delay cannot be sustained.
