Farmers Movement Archive

HC grants 10-day transit anticipatory bail to Beed engineer

Aurangabad: The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court on Tuesday granted 10-day transit anticipatory bail to Beed engineer Shantanu Muluk against whom a Delhi court has issued a non-bailable arrest warrant in the Toolkit document case being investigated by the Delhi police.Muluk had moved the HC on Monday apprehending his arrest by the Delhi police, citing that the latter had on February 13 arrested one of his group members from Bengaluru and had raided another colleague in Mumbai on February 11. He had also cited that a Delhi police team had been stationed in Beed for the last three days and had seized various material from his residence while asking for him.Muluk had contended that he should be given a fair chance to present his case before the Delhi courts and, for that, he needed a transit anticipatory bail.His plea came up for hearing before the bench of Justice Vibha Kankanwadi who initially questioned his lawyer Satej Jadhav’s plea for a three-week transit anticipatory bail. The bench sought to know why a transit bail of three weeks was needed when the applicant could reach Delhi in a matter of two hours (by air).Jadhav submitted that his client needed sufficient time to meet and consult his lawyers in Delhi and prepare his case for anticipatory bail before a Delhi court and also needed time to meet and present facts before the law-enforcing agencies in Delhi. Hence, an apt period of transit bail was required, he said.Additional public prosecutor Sandip Mahajan opposed the plea, arguing that the HC had no jurisdiction over the matter as of now. Mahajan cited a couple of judgments by the Supreme Court and the Patna high court in support of his argument, but Jadhav countered that the same were not applicable in the instant matter.Jadhav submitted that his client had to approach the HC bench in Aurangabad with valid apprehensions about arrest as a Delhi police team had visited his residence early on February 12 morning, asking for him.After hearing both sides, the bench granted Muluk 10-day transit pre-arrest bail.Muluk, along with two others, is facing charges of collaborating with an anti-national group for the creation of the `Toolkit' document, which was shared by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the ongoing farmers' protest, to "spread disaffection against the Indian state". Delhi police have claimed that Muluk and the two others created the document and passed it on to others for editing.

The Times of India

2021-02-17

Aurangabad