HC asks 4 to do public service for dropping case against them

The Bombay High Court has agreed to quash a criminal complaint against four college students on condition that they will have to preform public service over four weekends and donate money for charitable purpose.
The judgement was delivered by a Bench of Justices V M Kanade and P D Kode who yesterday asked the four to perform community service over the next four weekends by helping inmates of Arthur Road Central Prison here to draft pleadings for their cases with the help of a junior lawyer.
The junior lawyer will be provided by defence counsel Sadanand Shetty who defended the four accused -- Yadnyen Gaikwad (23), Umesh Patil (26), Puchit Darji (23) and Mittul Rawal (21) -- in the High Court in an assault case.

The Bench also asked these four persons to donate Rs 2,000 each from their pockets to Tata Cancer Research Centre and produce receipts before the Court within a month.
"By performing community service, the petitioners would get a peek into the lives of persons on the other side of law. This would help them to develop a sense of brotherhood and may sooth their aggressive temperament," said the Judges.
All the four accused had been booked by police in October 2010 for allegedly assaulting one Rohit Shirodkar with bamboo sticks and a bottle. Shirodkar filed a police complaint alleging he was beaten up because he had intervened in a fight between Gaikwad and another college student.

An FIR was registered and the accused were arrested and granted bail. Police filed a chargesheet in July 2011.
In the meantime, the dispute was resolved between the two sides and the accused moved the High Court to quash the case against them. Shirodkar filed an affidavit saying he did not wish to pursue the complaint further.