Police custody of J M Road blasts suspects illegal, claims lawyer

Advocate Mahmood Pracha on Tuesday filed a petition before a sessions court in Pune claiming that the 15-day police custody handed out to J M Road blast suspects was illegal. He sought the release of the nine suspects arrested in the case. He said that only National Investigation Agency (NIA) was entitled to investigate the offences registered under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). As the sections of UAPA have been invoked against the suspects, the ATS has no powers to probe the case, he said. He said only NIA court can hear the case and it was against the law for the magistrate court to hand out 15-day police custody to the suspects. The suspects should be released, he said. Special public prosecutor Raja Thakre, however, argued that NIA Act is not applicable in the case and the court has the right to grant police custody up to 30 days to the suspects .

Sassoon pharmacist held for accepting bribe

The state Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Tuesday arrested a pharmacist at Sassoon General Hospital for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1,800 from a pharmaceutical firm. The suspect has been identified as Shankar Maruti Dhoble (30), a resident of Pargaon Shigvi in Ambegaon. The complaint was filed by Vijay Rahesh Shelke (38) of Manjari. Police said Shelke and her brother Ganesh Jagtap operate a pharmaceutical firm Ganesh Pharma that has been supplying medicines to Sassoon Hospital since October 2012. The suspect demanded seven per cent commission on every order given to Shelke's firm. The firm recently received an order of medicines worth Rs 36,000 from the hospital for which Dhoble demanded Rs 2,500 as commission. However, Shelke on Tuesday filed a complaint against him at the ACB, Pune office. The ACB team laid a trap at a medical store in the hospital and arrested Dhoble after he was caught accepting bribe of Rs 1800.

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