No chargesheet in 60 days,Nooriya gets bail

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate VW Sonawane granted bail to the accused on a personal bond of Rs 15,000 and surety of like amount. The order will be executed on Thursday.

The police,meanwhile,said they would challenge the order. “We will challenge the lower court order first thing in the morning tomorrow and get a stay,” senior police inspector Arun Borude of the LT Marg police said.

Defence lawyer Renuka Laxmeshwar said,“The magistrate granted bail to her after I argued that prima facie the case falls under the ambit of Section 304 (II) of the Indian Penal Code. The same observations were made by the session’s court recently while turning down the bail plea and so did the Bombay High Court on Monday stated that the accident can at the most be an offence under Section 304 (II) of IPC,which would mean the accident was not intentional.”  

Haveliwala,a US citizen,had on January 30,crashed into a police team conducting a drive against drunken driving,leading to the death of biker Afzal Ibrahim (35) and police sub inspector Dinanath Shinde (46). The police had immediately taken her into custody and slapped her with charges under Section 304 and other penal sections under the Indian Penal code,the Motor Vehicles Act and the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

Laxmeshwar said,“I informed the court that as per Section 167 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Code,if the police fail to file their final report within 60 days of the commission of offence under Section 304 (II),then the accused gets the benefit and in default can be released on bail.”

The prosecution opposed the plea stating that the case registered against the accused was under Section 304,wherein the police have up to 90 days to file the final report. The court,however,dismissed the prosecution plea.