The Bombay High Court has cancelled the bail granted to a man from Pune and directed him to surrender on Friday before the Principal District Judge who will be placing him in judicial custody "till conclusion of the trial," for misleading the court.The bench of Justice Prithviraj Chavan was hearing a bail application of a man from Pune who had been charged with blackmailing a minor girl on Instagram.The man had promised to marry the girl while they were chatting, but he also threatened to reveal their conversations and blackmailed her. He demanded inappropriate photos from the minor.
After obtaining these photos, he allegedly shared them with his friends, who were also named as accused by the police. When the photos spread on WhatsApp, the family found out, and a case was filed against the accused in 2022.
The accused applied for bail before the Bombay High Court in April 2022, but no lawyer appeared on the scheduled date for the hearing.
Later, another lawyer mentioned the petition on February 22 and requested to withdraw it. Additional Public Prosecutor Ashish Satpute pointed out that the accused had already been granted bail by the Pune sessions court in June 2022, which, he said, was not disclosed to the High Court.
In fact, his two friends had also managed to secure bail from the trial court at that time.
The police station investigating the case filed its chargesheet after March 2022. Due to this change in circumstances, the accused applied for bail before the trial court, which granted bail in June 2022.
Advocate Kawchale apologised to the court, explaining that he was instructed by a relative of the accused to file a new bail application before the Pune Sessions court after the chargesheet was filed.
He was assured by the relative that another lawyer would withdraw the bail application filed before the High Court. However, Justice Chavan found this explanation unacceptable.
The court concluded that it had been misled, which is a serious matter and interferes with the judicial process. Therefore, the bail granted to the accused was cancelled.
Legal experts note that technically, Kawchale should have informed the trial court in 2022 about the pending bail plea before the High Court, or he should have withdrawn the bail plea from the High Court before filing a new one before the Sessions court.
The bench will continue to hear the petition on February 26.
TAGS: Bombay High Court Bail cancellation Surrender Misleading the court Blackmailing Minor girl Instagram Promised marriage
