Alleged shooter moves HC for stay on trial

Pune: Sharad Bhausaheb Kalaskar (29), one of the two men accused of firing at rationalist Narendra Dabholkar on August 20, 2013, has moved the Bombay high court seeking a stay on the trial before a special UAPA court in the city.
Kalaskar, also an accused in the murder of Leftist leader Govind Pansare in Kolhapur in February 2015 and in an arms haul case in Mumbai, has sought a stay on the trial of these two cases pending before Kolhapur and Mumbai sessions courts, respectively.As of now, Kalaskar is lodged in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail. His writ petition, filed through lawyer Jyoti Ghorpade, is at pre-admission stage, according to the information uploaded on the high court’s website.
The petition primarily takes an exception to the fact that Kalaskar was produced before the trial judges concerned only twice between December 2019 and March 2020. Thereafter, he had not been produced even once before the trial judges till date, nor had he been given the reasons for not being produced before the court.
It stated that the chargesheet in the case before the Pune court was filed in September 2016 and that before the Kolhapur court in December 2015. All this time, no charges were framed. All of a sudden, the Pune court was in haste to frame charges, the petition stated.
Among the prayers, Kalaskar has urged the HC to call the case records from Pune, Kolhapur and Mumbai courts as well as from the Arthur Road jail authorities related to the production of accused before these courts from November 2019 onwards. — Vishwas Kothari