A court here has granted bail to four men arrested for allegedly demanding money from a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA under the pretext of helping him secure a ministerial position in the Maharashtra government. The metropolitan magistrate court passed the order on Monday, a copy of which was made available on Tuesday, noting that the investigation in the case is almost complete and hence there was no need to detain the accused in jail further.
It added that the accused persons can be released on bail with certain conditions imposed on them to ensure there is no tampering with prosecution evidence. The accused persons Riyaz Shaikkh, Nandkishor Singh, Yogesh Kulkarni and Sagar Sangavai were arrested by the police and booked for cheating and impersonation.
The court directed the four accused to be released on a bond of Rs 25,000 each and that they shall appear before the concerned police station once a week till the filing of chargesheet. It also said the accused shall not leave India or contact any witnesses in the case.
The accused had sought bail claiming innocence and alleging that they have been falsely implicated in the case. The prosecution opposed the bail pleas stating that prima facie, a case was made out against the accused and that the alleged offences were serious given the recent political crisis in Maharashtra.
The four were arrested last month after BJP MLA Rahul Kul filed a complaint stating that the accused had demanded Rs 100 crore from him in return for securing a ministerial position in the state government. Kul had filed a complaint at the Marine Drive police station in Mumbai.
He claimed that on July 16, his assistant had received a call from a man identifying himself as Riyaz and seeking to meet Kul to discuss an offer. When Kul met the accused in a hotel in Mumbai, the accused persons demanded Rs 100 crore for securing the MLA a ministerial position, as per the First Information Report (FIR). Kul negotiated the amount to Rs 90 crore. The accused demanded Rs 18 crore to be paid in advance.
The MLA agreed and asked them to come back later. He then complained to the police who nabbed the accused. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has not yet carried out the cabinet expansion even over a month after he took the oath of office with BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis, who was sworn in as the Deputy CM.
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