Congress leader Milind Deora was acquitted by a magistrate court this week in a case for allegedly violating the model code of conduct on polling day during the 2019 general elections by giving a media bite near a polling booth in South Mumbai.
A Sewree magistrate court said in its judgment that he is liable to be acquitted and that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The Gamdevi police station where an FIR was registered, had failed to produce a CD which contained the video clip of the bite. The court said that this lapse on the part of the prosecution falsifies its case as the FIR was lodged based on the CD.
Metropolitan Magistrate PI Mokashi noted that due to the non-production of the CD before the court at the time of trial, the prosecution witnesses could not be confronted with its contents by playing it in court.
The FIR was lodged based on a complaint letter written to the police station by Ghanshyam Anjarlekar, working as an assistant section engineer in the Public Works Department. He had been deputed as an officer of code of conduct at Malabar Hill constituency and had received a letter from Chief Election Officer Bansi Gavali with a copy of the complaint on Twitter and the CD. He had written a complaint letter along with the CD to the Gamdevi police station to initiate action. The police had recorded his statement and treated it as an FIR. Deora was booked under the Representation of People Act.
During the trial, an independent witness connected to the CD had testified but had said that he could not understand the speech in the video as it was in English. He said the police had explained it to him in Marathi. The court found his evidence cannot be relied on, more so because the CD was not produced before him to identify.
As per the complaint, on Apr 29, 2019, on voting day, Milind Deora, who was then contesting as a Congress candidate from South Mumbai constituency, had given the bite around 9 am near Activity School, saying, “I appeal to all voters of South Mumbai to please elect a good candidate, somebody who can represent effectively, who can raise the constituency profile and restore South Mumbai’s voice once again.” Deora had later lost to Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena.
