VIKRANT HARISH VARANDANI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this Writ Petition, the Petitioner is seeking quashing of a First Information Report (FIR) registered against him and other accused persons for offence punishable under Sec. 387 read with Sec. 34 of the IPC. The Respondent-State has invoked the provisions of the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crimes Act, 1999 ("MCOCA") against the accused persons including the Petitioner and the chargesheet filed upon completion of investigation specifically raises charges under the provisions of the MCOCA also.

(2.) The principal contention raised on behalf of the Petitioner is that insofar as he is concerned, the provisions of the MCOCA could not have been invoked, as there is no material on record to show that he could be linked with any organized crime syndicate or any continuous unlawful activity undertaken by such a syndicate. In fact, it is emphasized on behalf of the Petitioner that he is merely an employee of a developer, having no connection with the co-accused persons and that therefore, the FIR as well as the charge-sheet deserve to be quashed, as against him.

(3.) The FIR dtd. 28/10/2017 stood registered against the Petitioner and other accused persons on the basis of the information submitted by one Sushilkumar Shinde. According to the informant, he was working as consultant to a Society called Sai-Visava Co-operative Housing Society, which was supposed to be redeveloped under the Slum Rehabilitation Scheme. According to the informant, the said project of redevelopment was to be undertaken for all the members of the Society numbering about 511, while the developer engaged for the project i.e. M/s Ami Corporation was seeking to illegally restrict such development only for about 90 members of the Society. The said developer M/s Ami Corporation in turn had entered into an agreement/joint venture with another developer M/s Paradigm Constructions for the purposes of the said project, which also, according to the informant, was not contemplated under the Scheme of redevelopment.