The Bombay High Court today quashed a case registered against Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray and some of his party workers for holding a protest march against the 2012 Azad Maidan riot despite the police refusing permission for it.
A bench of justices R V More and S V Kotwal quashed the case owing to inordinate delay by the police in filing the chargesheet in the case registered under the Bombay Police Act, which requires filing of chargesheet within six months.
On August 21, 2012, Thackeray had led the march from Girgaum Chowpatty to Azad Maidan protesting the August 11, 2012 riots during a demonstration by several minority groups against the violence against Muslims in Assam.
The police later had registered an FIR against Raj and some of his party workers including MNS's general secretary Shirish Sawant under section 135 of the Bombay Police Act for not obeying the police orders and breaching the statutory rules.
Sawant had approached the high court in 2015 for having the case quashed. Sawant's lawyer Rajendra Shirodkar today argued that under the said section, police is bound to file chargesheet within six months of lodging the FIR but till date it has not been done.
The bench accepted the argument and quashed the entire case.
"While Raj Thackeray had not filed petition in high court the case against him also stands quashed as the court has quashed the entire case," Justice Shirodkar said.
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