Charges framed against Indore BJP MLA in land scam case

A court here today framed charges against 17 persons including the BJP MLA Ramesh Mendola in a land scam case.
The special judge for anti-corruption cases B K Paloda framed the charges against Indore-2 constituency MLA Ramesh Mendola, the then city engineer of Indore Municipal Corporation Jagdish Daganvkar and the then building officer Rakesh Sharma under sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC.
Special Public Prosecutor Ashok Soni said that besides these three, the court also fixed charges under section 120 B against 14 others, including the Dhanlaxmi Chemicals' owners Vijay Kothari and Manish Sanghvi.

The next hearing would be held on June 15.
The matter is related to transfer of three acres of government land originally alloted on lease to Dhanlaxmi Chemicals in 1980. In 2004, it was illegaly transferred at a very low rate to the Nandanagar Credit Cooperative Society, headed by Mendola, who was then Indore city BJP chief.
A residential apartment was built on it and flats were sold. All this caused a loss of Rs 1.5 crore to the exchequer, a Lokayukta official said.

After the police filed the plea seeking judicial custody
of Mohaniya, an application seeking bail for the politician was moved by his counsel, advocate Somnath Bharti who is also an AAP legislator and a former Law Minister of Delhi.

"The incident took place on June 22 and an FIR was lodged under several bailable sections. Later, a statement of the complainant was recorded before a magistrate under section 164 CrPC and some non-bailable sections were slapped against him and a sitting member of the Assembly was arrested. This all happened just to humiliate him (Mohaniya)," Bharti said.
He argued that the accused cannot be deprived of his personal liberties.
"He is the representative of people and has several duties towards them. The people also cannot be deprived of their rights," the counsel added.
"The time in the FIR suggest that the women reached the MLA's office at 12 AM with their water-related demands. Is it the time to go to an MLA's office?

"Again the FIR was registered around the next midnight. This raises questions on the nature of the case," the counsel said during the arguments on the bail plea.
However, the police opposed the bail plea saying "he misbehaved with the people being people's representative. If he is granted bail, it will set a wrong precedent."
It further said that Mohaniya, being an influential person, could hamper the probe if he was granted bail. The allegations against the politician were also of grave nature.
Mohaniya, an MLA from Sangam Vihar, was arrested on charges of molestation and sexual harassment amidst high drama when he was addressing a press conference, triggering an angry reaction from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of declaring an "emergency" in Delhi.

Mohaniya, who is also vice chairman of Delhi Jal Board, was virtually dragged from his seat by a police official when he was talking to reporters at his office in Khanpur in South Delhi, at around 12.10 PM.
In their statements, the women alleged that Mohaniya had molested them during the tussle on June 22 when they had gone to complain to him against water problem faced by them.
In their complaint, they had earlier told police that the MLA and his men had verbally abused and threatened them.
Another case has been registered against Mohaniya at Govindpuri Police Station for allegedly slapping a 60-year-old man in Tughlaqabad area yesterday.

(Reopens LGD 24)
The counsel for the accused MLA, whose supporters thronged the court complex and protested against his arrest, argued that there was no substance in the FIR in which the woman has claimed that she had called up Khan on his phone on July 10 and when he did not answer it, she went to his residence at here.
"There is no substance in the FIR. An MLA does not have to work 24 hours. He has a personal life and if he is not answering your call, it does not mean you should go to his house," Phoolka submitted.

He also claimed that there is nothing in support of the allegation that Khan tried to run her over with his car, adding that Delhi Police is misusing its authority by arresting him.
The police, however, urged the court to grant Khan's custody while submitting that the allegation of offence under section 308 of IPC was serious and the legislator had threatened the woman when she was on her way to the court to record statement before the magistrate.
The police, which told the court that his custody was necessary, also said that it was difficult to probe the matter because the MLA's supporters were hampering it.

While denying the allegations, the counsel for the accused also claimed that Khan is not even aware of the alleged incident and hence, no custodial interrogation was required.