SC slams Maharashtra Govt. for shielding MLA’s money-lending father

NEW DELHI - The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday slammed former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for preventing police from registering a criminal case against Congress MLA Dilipkumar Sanandas’s father Gokulchand Sananda, a private money-lender, and also imposed a fine of Rs ten lakh on the state government.

An apex court bench comprising Justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly said: ” The (former) Chief Minister should not have interfered with the criminal justice system.”

The court also dismissed the appeal of the state government, which had challenged the fine of Rs 25,000 imposed on it by the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court.

The Bombay High Court had imposed the fine on March 5, 2009, on a petition filed by the farmers of Buldhana district, who alleged that the police refused to register a criminal case against Congress Gokulchand Sananda.The fine was then imposed after finding “gross interference from the executive” in shielding a private financier belonging to the ruling party.

The Bombay High Court charged the state government after findings that said Deshmukh’s private secretary Ajinkya Padwal had called up the Khamgaon city police station in Maharashtra on May 31, 2006, twice to enquire about a complaint against Gokulchand Sananda.

It was also found that Deshmukh’s secretary asked the policemen not to take action on the complaint against Sananda. (ANI)