New Delhi : The Supreme Court has quashed on technical ground a simple imprisonment of seven days with a fine of Rs 2,000 slapped on Mumbai police crime branch inspector Vilas Sanghai for arresting 64-year old Sumermal Mishrimal Bafna, a trustee of the city’s Bafna Charitable, in September 1993. The Bench of Justices Anil R Dave and L Nageshwara Rao quashed the conviction by the Bombay High Court in 1997 on the ground that the criminal contempt proceedings were not initiated as per law requiring either the trial court’s reference or on the consent of the advocate general
It upheld the inspector’s appeal, holding that the High Court’s order is set aside since it was “neither just nor legal.”
The inspector was probing a complaint of fraud and conspiracy against Bafna and arrested him a day before the latte’’s anticipatory bail application was to be heard on September 22, 1993, despite assuring the court through the public prosecutor in the previous hearing not to arrest him during the pendency of the application, provided he cooperates in the investigation.
