Mumbai: The Bombay High Court has refused to grant pre-arrest bail to a man who, according to police staged a crime to show that some people with whom he was on bad terms had given a contract for his killing. To prove this he had paid money to a youth who ensured his own arrest with a firearm and applicant’s photo and told the police that he had come to kill the applicant. However, during investigation the police found out the truth and wanted to arrest the applicant to find out from where the firearm was obtained.
The prosecution’s case is that on January 22 police constable Sudhir Metkar was on patrolling duty and received information that a person was standing suspiciously opposite a sweet shop that falls under the jurisdiction of Panchvati police station in Nashik. A police team then reached the spot and found out that a youth was indeed standing there and he could not provide a satisfactory answer for his presence and hence the police searched his person. The police found a country-made revolver, live cartridges, a photograph of Vijay Patil, the man whose pre-arrest bail was being heard by the high court, and a chit, on which the name and car number of the applicant was written. The youth told the police that he had been paid to kill the man whose photograph and car number was given to him.
However during the investigation the police found out that in fact Patil had himself hired the juvenile and handed him his own picture and a firearm and asked him to lie to the police, when apprehended, that a Vinayak Chaudhari had engaged him to eliminate Patil.
When Patil realised that the police was after him, he approached the court for anticipatory bail but the sessions court refused to grant him this and he then approached the high court.
Government pleader D.P. Adsule alleged before Justice Revati Mohite-Dere that Patil himself had created false drama in order to falsely implicate his enemies Jagdish Patil and Chaudhari. According to advocate Adsule, the men were involved in a dispute involving Rs 25 lakh; Vijay Patil had written to the inspector general of police alleging that Jagdish Patil and Chaudhari were trying to extort Rs 25 lakh from him while the latter had filed a case of cheating to the tune of Rs 25 lakh against Vijay Patil. The police told the court it needed Vijay Patil’s custody to find out from where he had obtained firearms. After hearing arguments Justice Mohite-Dere rejected Patil’s pre-arrest bail plea.
