The Supreme Court has set aside a bail granted in January 2019 by the Bombay High Court to gangster Pankaj Jagshi Gangar, an accomplice of international gangsters Chhota Shakil and a ‘Matka’ king of Borivali in Mumbai.
His bail was rejected by a special judge of Thane in March 2018 as a part of the organised crime syndicate. He was charge-sheeted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) and various provisions of the Indian Penal Code. He was arrested in 2017 by the Kasarvadavli police station, along with three gangsters – Iqbal Ibrahim Kaskar, Israr Jamil Sayyed and Mumtaz Ejaj Shaikh alias Raju.
Quashing his bail by the HC, a bench of Justices MR Shah and Sanjiv Khanna directed him to surrender forthwith and to face the trial, and further ordered the court concerned to issue a nonbailable warrant if he does not surrender.
Allowing the appeal by the Maharashtra government, the bench said it is “a glaring example of forum shopping by the accused which cannot be approved at all”. It noted how Pankaj challenged the order passed by the special judge before a single judge bench of the HC, which was not inclined to grant any relief when his lawyer on instructions withdrew the bail application and then filed a writ petition before the division bench of the HC.
