Mumbai Apr 20 PTI The Bombay High Court on Wednesday granted interim protection from arrest till April 28 to BJP leader Kirit Somaiyas son Neil Somaiya in a case of alleged misappropriation of public money collected for conserving the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Vikrant A single bench of Justice Anuja Prabhudessai said that in the event of his arrest Neil Somaiya should be released on a personal bond of Rs 50000 An FIR was registered against former BJP MP Kirit Somaiya and Neil Somaiya on April 6 at the Trombay police station in the city based on a complaint by an ex-Army person who claimed that the Somaiyas had collected Rs 57 crore from the public in 2013 for saving the decommissioned warship from being scrapped However this money was never used or deposited with the state governors office the complaint stated Kirit Somaiya had denied all the allegations and contested the Rs 57 crore figure The high court had last week granted a similar relief from arrest to Kirit Somaiya On Wednesday the court granted protection to Neil Somaiya and posted his pre-arrest bail plea for hearing along with the one filed by Kirit Somaiya on April 28 Advocate Shirish Gupte appearing for the police told the high court that the police has questioned Kirit Somaiya and would like to interrogate Neil Somaiya too Justice Prabhudessai directed Neil Somaiya to appear before the police from April 25 to April 28 between 11 am and 2 pm for questioning PTI SP NSK NSK

Mumbai Apr 20 PTI A public interest litigation PIL has been filed in the Bombay High Court seeking the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray state home minister Dilip Walse Patil Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and others for allegedly passing remarks against the judiciary The petition filed by the Indian Bar Association claimed that the respondents holding ministerial positions have levelled several false scandalous and contemptuous allegations against the judges of the High Court and the entire judicial system This has been done to undermine the majesty and dignity of the court and to shake the faith of the common man towards judiciary which is the grossest contempt of the court the plea said The PIL has also sought contempt action against Rashmi Thackeray editor of Saamana newspaper Shiv Sena mouthpiece and wife of Uddhav Thackeray and Vivek Kadam the printer and publisher of Saamana The respondentscontemnors who are holding ministerial berths and are in power are involved in a campaign of scandalizing the entire judicial system only because judgments rendered by courts do not suit them the PIL said Their respondents plan to keep their opponents in jail or to cause them harassment by the misuse of power and police machinery are failed due to the orders of this Court and the Supreme Court it alleged The petition is scheduled for hearing on April 26 The PIL listed various instances wherein comments were purportedly made against the judiciary including the recent comment made by Raut after the high court granted interim protection from arrest to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya in a cheating case After the order Raut allegedly gave interviews and made scandalous statements that the judges of courts particularly the Bombay High Court are granting reliefs to BJP members and not granting relief to the accused ministers of their parties the petition said The contemnors are shouting against the judges of the Bombay High Court by citing the narrative that the courts are granting reliefs to people belonging to BJP but the same reliefs are not being granted to accused ministers members and leaders of their party the PIL said It further said that the judges are under tremendous pressure since every order passed by them is being scanned and defamed by the contemnors PTI SP NSK NSK

Mumbai Apr 18 PTI Observing that a father is a fortress and trustee of his daughter a special court here has convicted a 40-year-old man for sexually assaulting his five-year-old daughter and sentenced him to five years in jail while rejecting the defences argument that there was no skin-to-skin touch The special court set up under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act POCSOA convicted the man on April 12 for sexually assaulting his minor daughter under the Indian Penal Code and the POCSOA A copy of the order was made available on Sunday Special Judge H C Shende termed astonishing the argument put forth by the accused mans advocate that the victim never said that her father touched her private part with his finger I am astonished by such arguments because even the provisiondefinition of sexual assault given under Section 7 of the POCSOA does not specify how the assailant should touch the private part of the victim and what amounts to an offence if the victim is assaulted by the assailant the court said The court further said that the accused in the present case was the father of the victim and hence the plea of mercy made by him to show leniency was misplaced and would be a travesty of justice A father is a fortress and trustee of his daughter This crime therefore becomes more grievous In the present case I do not find extenuating or mitigating circumstances on record to justify the imposition of a lesser punishment than prescribed by law the special judge said The complaint was filed by the wife of the accused man The complaint stated that in 2019 the victims teacher had alerted her about the victim behaving weirdly in school When the complainant questioned her daughter she revealed that the father had touched her private part The mother then lodged a complaint against her husband The accused claimed that he was falsely implicated by his wife as she wanted to leave him In its order the court refused to accept this argument and noted that the victim stuck to her version throughout the trial that the accused had touched her private part The victim is not only saying that the accused touched her but also added that thereafter the accused threatened her that if she would disclose this to anyone he would punish her This reflects the guilty mind of the accused behind the act the court said PTI SP NSK NSK

Mumbai Sep 21 PTI Maharashtra minister Anil Parab on Tuesday filed a defamation suit in the Bombay High Court against BJP leader Kirit Somaiya for allegedly making malicious malafide and defamatory statements and demanded monetary damages of Rs 100 crore Parab a Shiv Sena leader also requested a direction to Somaiya to tendering unconditional apology saying his reputation has been damaged by Somaiya who is only seeking cheap publicity The state Transport Minister has also sought a permanent injunction against Somaiya from making or publishing any such statement against him in future The suit which will come up for hearing in due course said Somaiya has been making false statements alleging that Parab is embroiled in criminal and corrupt activities Parab had last week sent a legal notice through his advocate Sushma Singh to Somaiya the former MP of BJP The minister in the suit said he was constrained to approach the high court as Somaiya had not responded to the notice Parabs suit said Somaiya had been continuously indulging in a smear campaign since May 2021 by publishing false and reckless allegations on social media by attributing a scam to Parab in connection with a construction of a resort at Dapoli in the Ratnagiri district Parab has no connection with the said resort or construction of the same the suit said adding the posts published by Somaiya are widely circulated on social media thus causing damage to the ministers reputation The plaintiff Parab has already faced several queries from his seniors and colleagues in the government from his political party and family regarding the false allegations made by the defendant Somaiya the suit said The plaintiffs good name image and reputation has been spoiled by the defendant for his two minutes of media spotlight and fame it added The suit further said that Parab has been discharging his duties as a minister honestly and diligently PTI SP NSK NSK