Mumbai: A special Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) court on Tuesday rejected an application filed by a 2008 Malegaon bomb blast case accused, Sudhakar Dwivedi alias Dayanand Pandey, requesting the court that the honorific of ‘Shri’ be added before his name in all probe documents.
In March this year, Pandey had made an application before the MCOCA court requesting it that ‘Shri’ should be added before his name in all the documents including the court records and the case papers of National Investigating Agency (NIA), which is probing this matter now.
Pandey had contended that as per Article 21 of the Constitution of India, no person should be deprived of his right to life and personal liberty except according to the procedure established by law. According to him, the trial in the case hadn’t started and he was innocent until proven guilty and has every right to ensure his self-respect.
Special public prosecutor Avinash Rasal had opposed this application, saying that there was no such provision in the law to add an honorific before the name of an accused. He also pointed out to the court that there was a HC notification, which bars adding honorific like Shri, Mr or Mrs before the name of an accused. He had also pointed out to the court that in the past, there have been cases pending in SC involving former Prime Ministers of India too but no honorific were added before their names.
After hearing all the arguments, special judge Shripad Tekale rejected the application moved.
Six people were killed and nearly 100 were injured when a bomb exploded in Malegaon town of Nashik district on September 29, 2008.
