Bombay High Court Asks District Judge To Probe How BJP’s Kirit Somaiya Got Copies Of Judicial Order, FIR In Cases Against NCP’s Hasan Mushrif

The Bombay High Court on Friday ordered a judicial inquiry to find out how BJP leader Kirit Somaiya obtained a copy of a judicial order passed against NCP leader Hasan Mushrif’s sons hours after the order was pronounced.

The bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh asked the Principal District Judge to conduct the inquiry. It also directed the investigating officer to explain how Somaiya procured the FIR copy against Mushrif before it was submitted to the magistrate.

Significantly, the bench granted interim relief to Mushrif and directed that no coercive action be taken against him in the FIR filed in Kolhapur on February 23, 2022 alleging cheating.

During the hearing, Senior Advocate Aabad Ponda along with Advocate Prashant Patil for Mushrif informed the bench about the “lightning speed” at which Somaiya procured a copy of an order against Mushrif’s three sons.

A Pune court issued process against the three men on a complaint by the Registrar of Companies on April 1, 2022 between 5-5.30pm and Somaiya tweeted the order at 7.30 pm. The accused received a certified copy four days later on April 5, 2022, they said.

In another instance, Somaiya tweeted the Kolhapur FIR against Mushrif on February 25, 2023, just a day after it was registered whereas a copy was submitted to the magistrate on March 1, 2023.

“… we direct the principal district judge to inquire as to how said order was made available on same day and whether the same could have been made available without issuing a certified copy of said order. Additional Public Prosecutor to file an affidavit on when the FIR was uploaded and it was it made available. All these details to be sent to the magistrate," Justice Dere said, while dictating the order.

Regarding his prayer for no coercive action, Mushrif’s plea argues that, “the recent events which have transpired in the last six to seven months clearly show that there has been a deliberate attempt to get the petitioner (Mushrif) involved in Enforcement Directorate cases.”

He further alleged that “Somaiya has been making false and frivolous allegations against the petitioner and in fact predicting the actions taken by various law enforcement agencies especially the ED, with an oblique intention of getting the Mushrif arrested in any manner possible”.

According to the petition filed by Mushrif, in 2022 a special case under the provisions of Companies Act, 2013, was filed before the Court of Sessions at Pune wherein process was issued against his sons and few others connected to Sar Senapati Santaji Ghorpade Sugar Factory Limited. “It is also a matter of record that an attempt was made to start an investigation treating this special case as “scheduled offence” for the purpose of investigation at the hands of Enforcement Directorate.”

However, the order was stayed by the HC.

The FIR filed in Kolhapur on February 23 mentions one Vivek Kulkarni as the complainant and an attempt was being made “to create” another scheduled offence for the ED to continue its probe, Mushrif said.

The FIR in Kolhapur alleged that in 2012, Mushrif made appeals through meetings and newspapers and Rs 10,000 was collected from many individuals as share capital. Those individuals were to be entitled to get 5 kg sugar each month at a nominal rate along with other benefits. Kulkarni alleged that no share certificates were issued to anyone in lieu of the amount, nor were they made shareholders.

However, Mushrif has said that he is not connected to the company in any way. Moreover, the complainant himself had received around 660 kg of sugar till date against his alleged payment of Rs 10,000 and there is no illegal gain to warrant an FIR. Moreover, the alleged aggrieved individuals registered a counter FIR against the complainant.

Significantly, he said the FIR was registered within 15-20 minutes of information being received which indicated that the police failed to conduct a preliminary enquiry of an alleged offence from 2012 against the mandates under the Lalita Kumari judgement.

The High Court will hear the matter next on April 24.