A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Monday briefly heard arguments on his petition and would continue further hearing on December 19
Sanjay Pandey. File Pic
Former Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey has moved the Bombay High Court, seeking quashing of an extortion case filed against him, alleging political vendetta behind the case, reported the PTI.
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A case against ex-Maharashtra DGP Pandey was filed by the police in adjoining Thane city.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande on Monday briefly heard arguments on his petition and would continue further hearing on December 19.
Sanjay Pandey, in his plea, claimed the FIR accusing him of criminal conspiracy, forgery and extortion, based on a complaint lodged by businessman Sanjay Punamiya, was nothing but an act of "political vendetta", as per the PTI.
Sanjay Punamiya, in his complaint, had alleged that former IPS officer Sanjay Pandey, in 2021, misused his position as DGP to extort money and coerced him into giving false statements.
Sanjay Pandey's lawyers, Mihir Desai and Rahul Kamerkar, submitted before the court that the FIR was filed after a delay of three years.
"The delay exposes the inauthenticity of the contents. It is implausible that the complainant, after three years, suddenly claims coercion by the applicant (Punamiya), with whom he has never interacted," the petition said, according to the PTI.
The former IPS officer said the FIR was a targeted attack and part of an ongoing political vendetta against him since his retirement from police service.
The petition seeks to quash the FIR and stay the investigation, arguing none of the offences alleged are made out against him.
The FIR accused Pandey, two retired police officers, and others of threatening Punamiya with false cases unless he implicated political figures in an urban land ceiling scam.
Punamiya alleges while he was admitted to Saifee Hospital in 2021, officers conveyed Pandey's "message" to implicate prominent politicians Eknath Shinde (then a Shiv Sena minister), Devendra Fadnavis of the BJP (who was then in the opposition), and former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh.
The former DGP had earlier filed a pre-arrest bail plea in the high court in the case and has been granted protection from arrest till January 3, 2025.
(with PTI inputs)
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