Mumbai: Bombay high court on Monday declined anticipatory bail to a Satara sessions court judge who has been accused of seeking a bribe from a bail applicant in a cheating case.
The sessions court judge, Dhananjay Nikam, had petitioned high court on Dec 31, 2024, through his advocate Viresh Purwant. Senior counsel Ashok Mundargi appeared for him before a single judge bench of Justice N R Borkar and sought relief, while additional public prosecutor Veera Shinde opposed the pre-arrest bail petition.
High court’s reasoned order will be made available at a later date.
On Jan 15, Justice Borkar had noted the prosecution’s claim that the complainant sat in the judge’s car and the two allegedly had an incriminating conversation on the way to a bank. The sessions judge called all allegations as false and argued that there was nothing to link him to any accusation of demand or acceptance of money.
The judge’s counsel, Mundargi, said a request was sent to the bank to provide CCTV camera footage from Dec 9, 2024, but the bank expressed its inability to provide that without a court order, citing “confidentiality norms”. HC had directed the bank in Jan to hand over the footage in a week.
Purwant said they will study the order and decide the next course of action, including whether to approach SC. tnn