Mumbai, Jan 22: The Mumbai High Court would today hear the petition filed by former Police Commissioner R S Sharma questioning applicability of Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act in the fake stamp paper case and consider his plea for interim relief to restrain special investigation team from seeking further police custody. Sharma, whose bail plea was rejected on January 19 by a Pune court, argued that not only he but also the principal accused Abdul Karim Telgi and others were wrongly booked under this stringent law.

Sharma had earlier filed a petition challenging his arrest under MCOCA and constitutional validity of the act but later amended it by questioning the applicability of this law on him and others. Sharma's petition would come up for hearing before Justice V G Palshikar and Justice P V Kakade.

N R Shere, Deputy Secretary, Home, had earlier filed an affidavit opposing Sharma's plea for interim relief. He said Sharma's petition was not tenable in law and should be dismissed.

Shere said the high court had earlier upheld the validity of MCOCA in the Bharat Shah case and other cases too. The affidavit said that police was empowered under Section 21(7) of MCOCA to seek police custody of an accused for investigations. Granting Sharma interim relief would cause great prejudice to SIT which was probing the scam on a court directive, the official said.

Bureau Report