Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Friday rapped the Maharashtra police for registering 11 FIRs against former MP and NCP leader Anand Paranjpe for protesting against Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Prithviraj Chavan remarked that the police will learn a lesson only when a cost is imposed and they are directed to pay the same from their own salaries. “This has to stop. Ultimately the common man suffers…” remarked Justice Dere. The HC was hearing a petition filed by Mr Paranjpe seeking clubbing of all the FIRs.
Additional public prosecutor informed the court that the police would not take any coercive action against Mr Paranjpe in all the FIRs till Jan 18. The NCP leader’s advocates said that the 11 FIRs arise from a political agitation against the CM on Dec 12, 2022. The government pleader said the offences registered against Mr Paranjpe were bailable and he could apply for bail in all the cases.
To this, the bench questioned as to why an accused should apply for bail in each of the 11 cases, when there shouldn’t have been so many cases in the first place.
In the case, it was alleged that the protestors had defamed the CM and uploaded a video of the agitation on social media like Twitter to create unrest. It’s also alleged that Mr Paranjpe knew that there are innumerable followers/supporters of the CM and they would get offended and resort to rioting.
Mr Paranjpe claimed that the FIRs registered against him are identical and arising out of the alleged incident, tweet and cause of action.
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