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Wednesday, Jun 11, 2008
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Court rejects bail plea of NCP leaders

Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday rejected the plea by two Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders seeking anticipatory bail in connection with the attack on the house of the editor of the Marathi daily Loksatta.

Justice V C Daga refused to give anticipatory bail to Tanaji Shinde, general secretary of the NCP and Vinayak Mete, NCP vice-president, asking them to first approach a lower court for relief.

The court also refused interim bail till Wednesday sought by the duo’s lawyer so that they could approach the lower court.

Senior editor of Loksatta, Kumar Ketkar, had written an article on June four criticising the government’s decision to erect a statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji off the coast of Mumbai.

According to the police case, some persons from Shiv Sangram Organisation (SSO) had gathered outside the editor’s residence the next day and shouted slogans.

Using stones, iron rods the group allegedly attacked the house and applied asphalt on his door. When police tried to stop them, they pelted stones at the police van. Ten persons were arrested. The accused were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Bombay Police Act.

Mr. Shinde is the president and Mr. Mete is the founder of the SSO. However, both were out of Thane when the incident occurred and had nothing to do with it. While Shinde was in Solapur, Mete was in Beed, the application stated. — PTI

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