Mumbai: A special Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) court has rejected the discharge applications filed by accused in Nalasopara arms haul case.
UAPA judge D.E. Kothalikar on Saturday rejected the applications filed by the accused, who had contended that the provisions of UAPA have been wrongly applied on them. They contended that the UAPA is not applicable in the case and hence they should be discharged from the case.
Special public prosecutor Raja Thakre, chief public prosecutor Jaising Desai and Sunil Gonsalves had opposed the pleas contending that appropriate procedure was followed to imposed UAPA in the case and hence the applications should be rejected.
Accepting the contention of the prosecution, the judge rejected their applications and deferred the matter for passing order on bail application of the accused and framing of charges after 10 days. It may be recalled that the applicants had earlier filed bail applications. However, the day when the court was supposed to pass order on bail pleas the accused filed applications for discharge and requested the court to first decide their discharge applications.
On August 10, 2018, the ATS seized crude bombs and cache of arms and ammunition from Nalasopara. During investigation over a period of time, the police arrested twelve persons in the case and filed chargesheet against them. According to the ATS the accused were planning terror activities including targeting sunburn music festival in Pune.
Three of the arrested accused Sharad Kalaskar, former Shiv Sena corporator Shrikant Pangarkar and Avinash Pawar filed bail applications before the court the day probe agency filed chargesheet against them. They have contended that since investigation in the case is over they should be granted bail.
The bail has been sought on different grounds such as despite the case being registered under UAPA, the prosecution case was progressing slowly and liberty of accused could not be curtailed.
It was further contended that the charge sheet showed the investigation was completed.
