PANAJI
The Additional Sessions Court has reserved the order on AAP State President Amit Palekar’s bail plea to Monday; a day after he was granted interim bail shortly after his arrest for allegedly misleading the police in the Banastarim fatal accident case.
During the arguments on Friday, Palekar’s legal representative Advocate Nitin Sardessai argued that the Crime Branch’s claim of having material evidence to implicate Palekar in criminal conspiracy (a non-bailable offense under section 120-B IPC) was nothing but a move towards invoking 201 (destruction of evidence), 202 (Intentional omission to give information of an offense by a person legally bound to inform), and 212 (Harbouring an offender) IPC, all of which are bailable offense.
“They (CB) are not saying my client (Palekar) has entered into a criminal conspiracy...You can never have a conspiracy to create an accident...It is very sudden. If you assume it is a conspiracy, it could be to shield the accused, but this attracts a separate offense,” Sardesai argued.
The public prosecutor had on Thursday hinted at certain material evidence against Palekar for criminal conspiracy but urged the investigation not to delve into the matter at this stage of the investigation; and instead urged the court to hear the application based on its merits.
The prime accused Shripad Sinai Sawardekar alias Paresh, and his wife Meghana, are currently on conditional bail and anticipatory bail, respectively.
Both Palekar and the alleged dummy driver, Ganesh Lamani, were arrested on Thursday under various sections of the IPC.
They were however granted interim bail in a late-night order which came following their bail applications filed shortly after their arrest.
Meanwhile, the order on the regular bail will be pronounced by the court at 2:30 pm on Monday.
