Bombay high court grants bail to approver in MCOCA case

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday granted bail to an approver in an organised crime case of an alleged Rs 10 crore extortion demand made by Suresh Pujari from Malaysia. This is the first such order by the high court to grant bail to an approver in MCOCA case.
Sharad Agarwal, 36, had last year approached the high court after a special court designated under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) had rejected his plea for bail.His counsel Raja Thakare with advocates Pratap Nimbalkar, Siddharth Jagushte and Meghashyam Kocharekar contended before Justice SK Shinde that though he was arraigned as accused number 9 in the case. He has since been granted pardon as approver last September in the case he is entitled to get bail. Agarwal said he was falsely accused in the case and that he is a businessman with a travel firm, languishing in Thane Central jail since 2015 after his arrest by Mumbai police as part of its investigation into the Pujari crime syndicate.
There is a statutory bar under criminal procedure code on the release of an approver till completion of trail argued the prosecutor Sharmistha Kaushik. But Thakare argued that since Agarwal was a granted pardon and since he now has “a status of a witness” and has not breached any condition (if any) which was imposed on him while granting pardon, the trial court erred in not applying its mind judiciously to his case.
“He has made a full and true disclosure of the facts within his knowledge concerning the offence,” the bail plea said.
Sanction to prosecute under MCOCA was received in January 2016 by the police. A chargesheet was filed before the special MCOCA court in Mumbai against Agarwal and others. The case of the prosecution is that a complainant claimed to have received a call in September 2015 from an international number and the caller said that he was Suresh Pujari calling from Malaysia. He allegedly demanded Rs 10 crores to be paid up within two days if he wishes to stay alive.
The bail plea said the prosecution case was that “The Complainant further alleged that on 21/09/2015 at 9.40pm, he again received a call from Suresh Pujari and he allegedly said that the complainant should give him Rs 1 crore as good luck to which the complainant allegedly replied that he can give only Rs 5 lakh as a good luck and that too at regular intervals.” He said he received more calls which he did not answer fearing it would be Suresh Pujari. The FIR alleged that the alleged extortion claims were made through text messages in October 2015.