Anil Tukaram Mohite vs Teh Commissioner Of Police Pimpri ...
2021 Latest Caselaw 13327 Bom

                                                       CRIWP1832-2021.DOC
                                                                           Santosh

       IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                  CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION


                     WRIT PETITION NO. 1832 OF 2021

   Anil Tukaram Mohite                                          ...Petitioner
   Age 44 years, R/o C/401, Bela Vista
   Society, Datta Mandir Road, Wakad,
   Pune.
                     Versus
1. The Commissioner of Police Pimpri
   Chinchwad
2. The State of Maharashtra (Through
   Addl. Chief Secretary to Government of
   Maharashtra, Mantralaya, Home
   Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai)
3. The Superintendent, Yerwada Central
   Prison, Pune.                                           ...Respondents


Mr. Rizwan Merchant, a/w Mr. Sultan Khan and Mr. Sagar
     Shete, i/b Mr. Ramiz Shaikh, for the Petitioner.
Mrs. M. H. Mhatre, APP for the State/Respondent.

                                CORAM: S. S. SHINDE &
                                        N. J. JAMADAR, JJ.

RESERVED ON: 11th AUGUST, 2021.

PRONOUNCED ON: 17th SEPTEMBER, 2021.

JUDGMENT:- [PER : N. J. JAMADAR, J.]

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith, and with the

consent of the Counsels for the parties, heard finally.

2. The petitioner who has been detained under the provisions

of Section 3(2) of the Maharashtra Prevention of Dangerous

Activities of Slumlords, Bootleggers, Drug Offenders and

Dangerous Persons, Video Pirates, Sand Smugglers and Persons

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engaged in Black-marketing of Essential Commodities Act, 1981

("the MPDA Act"), by the order dated 24 th February, 2021,

passed by the Commissioner of Police, Pimpri Chinchwad, has

preferred this petition assailing the legality and validity of the

said detention order.

3. The background facts leading to this petition can be

stated, in brief, as under:

(a) A proposal was initiated to take action against the

petitioner under Section 3 of the MPDA Act at the instance of

Wakad Police Station, Pune. It was alleged that the criminal

activities of the petitioner had created a reign of terror in the

locality where the petitioner ordinarily resided. The petitioner

became a perpetual danger to the lives and properties of the

people residing and carrying out their daily activities and

vocation in the jurisdiction of the Chatushrungi Police Station,

Pune City and Wakad Police Station, Pimpri Chinchwad

Commissionerate. The petitioner and his accomplices roamed

around armed with deadly weapons and committed offences of

rioting, attempt to murder, murder and criminal trespass etc.

(b) Apart from the offences which were registered against

the petitioner during the period 2013 - 2018 and preventive

action under Section 55 of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, in

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the year 2016, the detaining authority took note of two predicate

offences. First, CR No.1190/2020 registered with Chatushrungi

Police Station against the petitioner and his associates for the

offences punishable under Sections 447, 427, 506 read with

Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 ("the Penal Code"), on

29th August, 2020. Second, CR No.710/2020 registered with

Wakad Police station for the offences punishable under Sections

452, 324, 504, 506(II) of the Penal Code and Section 7 of the

Criminal Law Amendment Act, Section 3(25) of the Arms Act,

1959 and 37(1) read with Section 135 of the Maharashtra Police

Act, 1951, on 5th October, 2020. The detaining authority noted

that on account of the fear of reprisal victims and the witnesses

were not willing to come forward and, therefore, statements of

two witnesses were recorded in-camera. The confidential

witnesses, whose statements were recorded on 15 th January,

2020, related the instances which had occurred on 17 th

December, 2020 and 19th December, 2020, respectively, and

which had the propensity to disturb public order.

(c) The detaining authority thus recorded a subjective

satisfaction that the petitioner was a dangerous person within

the meaning of Section 2(b-1) of the Act, 1981. The petitioner

had unleashed a reign of terror and become a perpetual danger

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to the society at large. People in the vicinity were experiencing a

sense of insecurity. Therefore, it was necessary to detain the

petitioner by invoking the provisions contained in Section 3(2) of

the Act, 1981 to prevent the petitioner from acting any manner

prejudicial to the maintenance of public order, in future. Thus,

the detaining authority passed the impugned order and served

the grounds of detention on the petitioner on 24 th February,

2021. The State Government approved the order of detention

passed by respondent no.1, by order dated 3rd March, 2021.

4. The petitioner takes exception to the detention order on

multi-fold grounds. First and foremost, the impugned order

suffers from vice of patent non-application of mind. No element

of the activities attributed to the petitioner being subversive of

public order is made out. At best, the activities attributed to the

petitioner can be said to be in the realm of law and order.

Failure to properly comprehend the distinction between breach

of law and order and disturbance of public order vitiates the

detention. Secondly, there is an inordinate delay at various

stages in passing the impugned detention order. Unexplained

delay renders the detention order legally unsustainable. Thirdly,

the failure to place the copies of relevant and vital documents

before the detaining authority and furnish copies thereof to the

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petitioner impairs the legality of the detention order as the

detaining authority could not weigh the relevant material to

arrive at the subjective satisfaction. Fourthly, there is no

proper verification of the truthfulness and genuineness of the

statements of confidential witnesses resulting in impaired

subjective satisfaction.

5. Affidavits-in-reply are filed by respondent no.1,

Commissioner of Police, Pimpri-Chinchwad, the detaining

authority, and on behalf of respondent no.2 State.

6. The respondents have refuted that the detention order is

vitiated on account of non-application of mind. According to

respondents there is no delay in processing the proposal for

detention and passing the detention order. The time consumed

in processing the proposal has been properly accounted for. Nor

the order of detention is vitiated on account of improper

verification of the statements of the confidential witnesses. All

the material documents were placed before the detaining

authority and furnished to the petitioner along with the grounds

of detention and thus the petitioner was not prejudiced in

making an effective representation.

7. In the backdrop of the aforesaid facts and pleadings, we

have heard Mr. Rizwan Merchant, the learned Counsel for the

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petitioner and Ms. Mhatre, the learned APP for the State, at

length. With the assistance of the learned Counsels for the

parties we have perused the material on record including the

original record of the detention proceedings, tendered for the

perusal of the Court by the learned APP.

8. In the wake of aforesaid pleadings and submissions across

the bar, the challenge to the detention order can be conveniently

evaluated on the following grounds:

(i) Activities of the petitioner allegedly not being

prejudicial to the maintenance of the public order.

(ii) Delay in passing the detention order, at various

stages.

(iii) Failure to place before the detaining authority the

copy of the bail order dated 19th October, 2020 in CR

No.701/2020, the relied upon crime.

(iv) Alleged failure on the part of detaining authority in

recording satisfaction about the truthfulness and

correctness of the statements of confidential

witnesses.

9. On the first count, Mr. Merchant, the learned Counsel for

the petitioner, strenuously urged that none of the offences taken

into account by respondent no.1 to pass the impugned order of

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detention reflects activities prejudicial to the maintenance of

public order. It was urged that CR No.1190/2020 was lodged in

respect of a dispute over the entitlement to possess an

immovable property. Even if the narration of facts therein is

taken at its face value, no element of prejudice to maintenance

of public order can be discerned therefrom. Even the presence

of the petitioner at the place of occurrence can hardly be said to

have been made out. Whereas, the occurrence reported in CR

No.701/2020 took place within the four walls of the house of

the first informant. By no stretch of imagination can it be said

that the said occurrence had the potentiality to disturb the

public order. Moreover, there was an inordinate delay of about

two months in lodging the report in respect of the said

occurrence. In substance, according to Mr. Merchant, none of

the predicate offences indicated that the petitioner indulged in

activities subversive of public order.

10. In order to properly appreciate the aforesaid submissions,

it may be apposite to note the narration of facts in respect of

above numbered crimes.

11. CR No.1190/2020 was registered at the instance of Mr.

Nitin Sanghani. The substance of the allegation is that the first

informant is the owner of Plot No.6, situated at Survey No.261/2

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Baner. On 20th August, 2020, the owner of the adjoining plot

informed him that some persons had broken open the gate of

the compound to the said plot and levelled the ground. The

first informant went to the said spot. It transpired that

somebody had broken open the chain lock to the steel gate and

levelled the plot and replaced the lock. It further transpired

that the petitioner and his associates were the perpetrators of

the said crime. Hence, the crime was registered for the offences

punishable under Sections 427, 420, 506 read with 34 of the

Penal Code.

12. The narration of facts in respect of CR No.701/2020

indicates that the first informant therein namely Santosh

Mohite alleged that the petitioner and his associates had barged

into his house, abused and manhandled him on 13th August,

2020. The petitioner pointed pistol at the chest of the first

informant and threatened the first informant to deliver the

ancestral property at Maan village and withdraw the

proceedings initiated against M/s. Khandekar Construction Pvt.

Ltd. lest the first informant and his progeny would be killed. The

first informant further claimed that on account of the fear of

reprisal he did not narrate the incident to anybody and after few

days addressed a letter to the Home Department, Government of

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Maharashtra. Upon transmission of the said letter to Wakad

Police; post inquiry, crime was registered at CR No.701/2020 for

the aforesaid offences.

13. Before we proceed to appreciate the issue as to whether

the acts and conduct attributed to the petitioner in the aforesaid

offences fall within the ambit of "disturbance to public order",

we deem it appropriate to notice, at this stage itself, the gist of

the confidential statement of witnesses 'A' and 'B', on which

emphasis was laid by Mrs. Mhatre, the learned APP to sustain

the impugned order.

14. Witness 'A' stated that on 17th December, 2020, the

hirelings of the petitioner asked him to see the petitioner who

was sitting in a car. When the witness approached the car, the

petitioner pulled him inside the car and pointed a pistol at the

witness and threatened him not to deal in the properties in

which the petitioner was interested, lest he would be killed.

15. Witness 'B' stated that on 9th December, 2020, the

petitioner intercepted his car and threatened the witness not to

provide the contract labourers at the sites where the petitioner

was intending to supply the labourers. When the witness

remonstrated, one of the hirelings of the petitioner abused and

assaulted him and threatened to eliminate him. The witness

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raised alarm but due to terror created by the petitioner nobody

came to his rescue.

16. Apparently, the basis of the aforesaid two offences and two

in-camera statements of witnesses the detaining authority has

arrived at the satisfaction that the petitioner is a dangerous

person and the petitioner indulged in activities which were

prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.

17. Upon careful perusal of aforesaid narration of facts, we

find considerable substance in the submission of Mr. Merchant

that none of the two crimes, relied upon by the detaining

authority, justify an inference that the activities attributed to

the petitioner therein have had the propensity to disturb the

public order.

18. To start with, we may note with benefit, the concept of

"public order" generally and its particular connotation under the

MPDA Act. The distinction between the concepts of "public

order" and "law and order" is well recognised. Public order is

something more than ordinary maintenance of law and order. A

proper test to distinguish between "law and order" and "public

order" is whether the complained acts led to disturbance of the

ordinary tempo of life of the community so as to amount a

disturbance of the public order or it merely affected an

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individual leaving the tranquility of society undisturbed. It is,

therefore, said that the essential distinction between the

concepts of "public order" and "law and order" is not in the

nature or quality of the act but in the degree, potentiality and

extent of its reach upon society. The given act by itself may not

be determinant of its own gravity. It is the propensity and

potentiality of the act of disturbing the even tempo of life of the

community that renders it prejudicial to the maintenance of

public order.

19. It would be imperative to note that under section 2(a) of

the MPDA Act, acting in any manner prejudicial to the

maintenance of public order, in the case of "dangerous person",

means, when he is engaged or is making preparation for

engaging, in any of his activities as a dangerous person, which

affect adversely, or are likely to affect adversely, the maintenance

of public order. Clause b(i) of section 2 defines a "dangerous

person" to mean a person, who either by himself or as a member

or leader of a gang, habitually commits, or attempts to commit

or abets the commission of any of the offences punishable under

Chapter XVI or Chapter XVII of the Indian Penal Code or any of

the offences punishable under Chapter V of the Arms Act, 1959.

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20. From a conjoint reading of the provisions contained in

Clause a(iv) and (b-1) of section 2 and 3(1) of the MPDA Act, it

becomes abundantly clear that when action of preventive

detention is initiated against a person, on the premise that he is

a dangerous person, twin conditions are required to be satisfied.

One, there must be material to justify the designation of such

person as dangerous person. Two, such dangerous person

should have indulged in activities which effect adversely or likely

to affect adversely the maintenance of public order. When these

two conditions are fulfilled the detaining authority shall further

be satisfied that it is necessary to detain such dangerous person

to prevent him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the

maintenance of public order.

21. A profitable reference, in this context, can be made to a

judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Pushkar

Mukherjee vs. State of West Bengal 1 wherein the import of the

term public order was illuminatingly postulated:

"8. .... Does the expression "public order" take in every kind of infraction of order or only some categories thereof.

It is manifest that every act of assault or injury to specific persons does not lead to public disorder. When two people quarrel and fight and assault each other inside a house or in a street, it may be said that there is disorder but not public disorder. Such cases are dealt with under the powers vested in the executive authorities under the provisions of ordinary criminal law but the culprits cannot be detained on the ground that they were disturbing public order. The

1AIR 1970 Supreme Court 852.

CRIWP1832-2021.DOC contravention of any law always affects order but before it can be said to affect public order, it must affect the community or the public at large. In this connection we must draw a line of demarcation between serious and aggravated forms of disorder which directly affect the community or injure the public interest and the relatively minor breaches of peace of a purely local significance which primarily injure specific individuals and only in a secondary sense public interest. A mere disturbance of law and order leading to disorder is thus not necessarily sufficient for action under the Preventive Detention Act but a disturbance which will affect public order comes within the scope of the Act."

22. A useful reference can also be made to the Judgment of

the Supreme Court in the case of Mustakmiya Jabbarmiya

Shaikh Vs. M. M. Mehta, Commissioner of Police & Ors. 2 In the

said case, in the context of provisions contained in Section 3 of

the MPDA Act, the Supreme Court illuminatingly postulated the

conditions which are required to be satisfied to pass a valid

detention order under Section 3 of the MPDA Act and the

distinction between "law and order" and "public order" in the

following words:

"9........ It, therefore, becomes necessary to determine whether besides the person being a "dangerous person" his alleged activities fall within the ambit of the expression "public order". A distinction has to be drawn between law and order and maintenance of public order because most often the two expressions are confused and detention orders are passed by the authorities concerned in respect of the activities of a person which exclusively fall within the domain of law and order and which have nothing to do with the maintenance of public order. In this connection it maybe stated that in order to bring the activities of a person within the expression of "acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order", the fall out and the extent and reach of the alleged activities must be of such a nature that they travel beyond the capacity of the ordinary law to

2(1995) 3 SCC 237.

CRIWP1832-2021.DOC deal with him or to prevent his subversive activities affecting the community at large or a large section of society. It is the degree of disturbance and its impact upon the even tempo of life of the society or the people of a locality which determines whether the disturbance caused by such activity amounts only to a breach of "law and order"or it amounts to "public order". If the activity falls within the category of disturbance of "public order" then it becomes essential to treat such a criminal and deal with him differently than an ordinary criminal under the law as his activities would fall beyond the frontiers of law and order,disturbing the even tempo of life of the community of the specified locality. In the case of Arun Ghosh V. State of W.B.(1970) 1 SCC 98 this Court had an occasion to deal with the distinction between law and order and public order. Hidayatullah, C.J. (as he then was), speaking for the Court observed that public order would embrace more of the community than law and order. Public order is the even tempo of the life of the community taking the country as a whole or even a specified locality. Disturbance of public order is to be distinguished from acts directed against individuals which do not disturb the society to the extent of causing a general disturbance of public tranquility. It is the degree of disturbance and its effect upon the life of the community in a locality which determines whether the disturbance amount only to a breach of law and order. It has been further observed that the implications of public order are deeper and it affects the even tempo of life and public order is jeopardized because the repercussions of the act embrace large sections of the community and incite them to make further breaches of the law and order and to subvert the public order. An act by itself is not determinant of its own gravity. In its quality it may not differ from another but in its potentiality it may be very different. Again in the case of Piyush Kantilal Mehta v. Commissioner of Police, 1989 Supp (1) SCC 322 this Court took the view that in order that an activity may be said to affect adversely the maintenance of public order, there must be material to show that there has been a feeling of insecurity among the general public. If any act of a person creates panic or fear in the minds of the members of the public upsetting the even tempo of life of the community, such act must be said to have a direct bearing on the question of maintenance of public order. The commission of an offence will not necessarily come within the purview of public order which can be dealt with under ordinary general law of the land"

23. On the aforesaid touchstone, reverting to the facts of the

case, it becomes evident that the predicate offences registered

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against the petitioner arose out of peculiar facts. CR

No.701/2020, registered at the instance of Santosh Mohite, had

its genesis in the alleged dispute over the ancestral property

situated at village Maan. The narration of facts indicates that

the alleged offences were committed inside the house of the first

informant. We do not intend, far a moment, to discount the

gravity of the alleged offences. What is of critical salience is the

fact that the alleged acts of the petitioner, within the four walls

of the house of the first informant, cannot be said to possess the

element of propensity to disturb even tempo of life of the society.

It's reach on the society, in the peculiar circumstances, was

minimal. As indicated above, the act by itself may not be

determinant of its potentiality to disturb public order. It is the

impact of the act on the society at large. We find it rather

difficult to persuade ourselves to hold that the incident which

had occurred in the precincts of the house of the first

informant, over the ancestral property, would disturb the tempo

of life of ordinary member of the society.

24. The activities attributed to the petitioner in CR

No.1190/2020, are required to be appreciated in the backdrop of

the fact that the dispute revolved around the alleged attempts of

encroaching over the open land of the first informant. Neither

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the first informant claimed that he had seen the petitioner at

the scene of occurrence. Nor there are allegations to the effect

that the petitioner, while allegedly establishing unlawful

possession over the plot of the first informant indulged in

activities which were likely to affect adversely maintenance of

public order. Both the predicate offences, in our view, do not

shed light on the activities, which had the propensity to cause

or calculated to cause harm, danger or alarm or a feeling of

insecurity among the general public.

25. The incident deposed to by the witnesses whose

statements were recorded in-camera also proceed on the same

pattern of administering threats to advance the commercial

interest of the petitioner. Confidential statement of witness 'A'

again refers to the incident which took place inside the car.

Witness 'A' does not refer to the impact of the alleged incident on

the members of the public, even remotely. Witness 'B', did

mention that despite his raising alarm nobody came to his

rescue and people ran away. However, in the totality of the

circumstances, where the predicate offences, do not make out a

case of the acts and conduct of the petitioner being prejudicial

to the maintenance of public order, it would be rather

hazardous to place implicit reliance on a solitary assertion of

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one of the two witnesses whose statements have recorded in-

camera to draw an inference about the activities being

prejudicial to the maintenance of public order.

26. The conspectus of the aforesaid consideration is that the

subjective satisfaction arrived at by the detaining authority that

the petitioner is dangerous person within the meaning of

Section 2(3)(1) of the Act, 1981 and the activities of the

petitioner were adversely affecting the maintenance of public

order cannot be said to be based on sustainable grounds. Thus

the subjective satisfaction is vitiated for failure to reckon the

distinction between the concepts of breach of law and order and

disturbance of public order. On this substantive ground alone,

the impugned order deserves to be quashed and set aside.

27. Nonetheless, we propose to briefly deal with the rest of the

grounds urged on behalf of the petitioner. Mr. Merchant

submitted that the order of detention is vitiated on account of

inordinate and unexplained delay. There is a delay of about six

months and 15 days in passing the detention order if computed

from the date of commission of the first offence on 13 th August,

2020. If the period is computed from the registration of the last

FIR i.e. 5th October, 2020, the delay comes to four months and

eight days. There is a delay of two months and nine days in

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passing the impugned order if computed from the last incident

reported by the confidential witnesses, dated 17 th December,

2020. The impugned order came to be passed after 40 days of

the recording of the in-camera statement of the witnesses i.e.

15th January, 2021. This delay at various stages, according to

Mr. Merchant, snapped the live link between the alleged

prejudicial incidents and object sought to be achieved by the

impugned order. Mr. Merchant further submitted that the delay

in processing the proposal of detention has also not been

properly accounted for. This delay also vitiates the impugned

order.

28. In order to lend support to the aforesaid submission Mr.

Merchant placed reliance on the judgments of this Court in the

cases of Mr. Nikhil Rajput vs. The District Magistrate, Jalgaon

and others,3 Sultan Yakub Qureshi vs. The Commissioner of

Police, Solapur and others4 Salman vs. The State of

Maharashtra through its Secretary, Home5 and the judgment of

the Supreme Court in the case of Pradeep Nilkanth Paturkar vs.

S. Ramamurthi6

3Cri.WP/505/2021.

4Cri.WP/610/2021.

52020 SCC Online Bom 858.

61993 SCC (Cri) 392.

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29. Per contra, Mrs. Mhatre, the learned APP stoutly

submitted that the period is to be computed from the date of

recording of the last in-camera statement of the witnesses. The

endeavour of the petitioner to take advantage of the time which

has elapsed since the date of the first incident, in respect of

which crime is registered, was stated to be unworthy of

countenance. To bolster up this submission, Mrs. Mhatre

placed reliance on the judgments of this Court in the cases of

Nagnarayan Saryu Singh vs. A. N. Roy, State of Maharashtra,

Superintendent, Nashik7 and Omkar Chandrashekhar Kapare

vs. Commissioner of Police, Pune City, State of Maharashtra,

Superintendent Yerwada Central Prison, Pune, Secretary

Advisory Board for MPDA Act8

30. The aspect of delay in processing the proposal and passing

the detention order invariably turns upon the facts of the given

case. Mere delay may not be fatal. However, if the delay is

unexplained and has the tendency to snap the live link between

the incidents and the resultant action, delay impairs the action

of preventative detention. In the case at hand, one aspect of

delay, which starkly stands out and vitiates the detention order

7ALL MR (Cri) 2017.

82019 Law Suit (Bom) 99.

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is the time-lag between the incident reported in the predicate

offences and the recording of the statements of the confidential

witnesses. The incidents occurred on 20 th August, 2020 and

13th August, 2021, respectively. The first information report in

CR No.701/2020 was recorded on 5 th October, 2020. The in-

camera statements of witnesses were, however, recorded on 15 th

January, 2021. There is no plausible explanation for not

initiating the action and recording the statements of the

witnesses, in-camera, during the intervening period, if the

authorities were of the view that the petitioner was repetitively

indulging in activities prejudicial to the maintenance of public

order.

31. The third count of challenge is rested in failure to place

before the detaining authority the copy of the bail order dated

19th October, 2020 in CR No.701/2020, the predicate offence,

and the consequent vitiation of the subjective satisfaction

arrived at by the detaining authority. Mr. Merchant urged with

a degree of vehemence that the failure to consider the reasons

ascribed in the bail order in aforesaid CR No.701/2020 resulted

in impaired subjective satisfaction. Mrs. Mhatre, joined the

issue by canvassing a submission that it is not peremptory that

in every matter the bail application and order passed therein

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must be placed before the detaining authority. A strong reliance

was placed on the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of

Sunil Jain vs. Union of India9 and a judgment of this Court in

the case of Sallauddin Imamuddin Ansari and another vs. State

of Maharashtra and others.10

32. The question as to whether the satisfaction arrived at by

the detaining authority is vitiated on account of the failure to

consider the bail application and order passed thereon, in the

predicate offence, is again rooted in facts. No rule of universal

application can be laid down. If in the given facts of the case,

the averments in the bail application and the reasons assigned

in the order granting or refusing to grant bail and the conditions

imposed by the jurisdictional Court, in the event bail is granted,

bear upon the question as to whether the acts and conducts

attributed to the proposed detainee were prejudicial to the

maintenance of public order and imperativeness of passing the

detention order, then failure to consider such application and

order may amount to non-consideration of a relevant material. It

would be suffice to make reference to the judgment of the

Supreme Court in the case of K. Vardhraj vs. State of T.N. and

9(2006) 3 SCC 321.

10(2020) All MR (Cri) 1641.

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another11 wherein after adverting to the judgments in the case of

M. Ahamedkutty vs. Union of India and another 12 and Abdul

Sattar Ibrahim Manik vs. Union of India and others, 13 the

Supreme Court held that it is clear that placing of application

for bail and the order made therein are not always mandatory

and such requirement would depend upon the fact of each case.

33. Reverting to the facts of the case at hand, indisputably the

bail order dated 19th October, 2020 passed by the learned

Sessions Judge, Pune, in CR No.701/2020 was not placed

before the detaining authority. The learned Sessions Judge,

while exercising the discretion to release the petitioner -

applicant on bail had observed that there was huge delay in

lodging the first information report. It is true that the learned

Sessions Judge also considered the facts that substantial

investigation had been completed and the offences were triable

by the Court of learned Magistrate. However, the fact remains

that the delay in lodging the first information report was prima

facie held to be huge one. If this factor is considered in

conjunction with the irrefutable fact that there was a delay of

about two months in lodging the first information report in

11(2002) 6 SCC 735.

12(1990) 2 SCC 1.

13(1992) 1 SCC 1.

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respect of the incident dated 13th August, 2020, a legitimate

inference can be drawn that the aspect of delay highlighted by

the learned Sessions Judge may have weighted with the

detaining authority, had the copy of the bail order was placed

before and considered by the detaining authority. The

submission on behalf of the petitioner that the failure to

consider the reasons assigned by the learned Sessions Judge

while releasing the petitioner on bail in the predicate offence,

thus cannot be said to be without substance.

34. The last ground of challenge that the authority did not

record subjective satisfaction that the incidents narrated by the

confidential witnesses were true and genuine, does not appear

to be well grounded in facts. We have perused the endorsements

made by the competent authority to verify the truthfulness and

genuineness of those incidents. The authority claimed to have

personally interacted with the witnesses and also visited the

places of those occurrence related to by the witnesses. We do

not find any infirmity in the verification of the statements of the

confidential witnesses.

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35. The upshot of aforesaid consideration and reasons is that

the order of detention deserves to be quashed and set aside.

36. Hence, the following order

:ORDER:

        (i)     The petition stands allowed.

        (ii)    The      impugned    order   of   detention         dated       24th

February, 2021, passed by the Commissioner of

Police, Pimpri Chinchwad, stands quashed and set

aside.

(iii) The petitioner - detenu Mr. Anil Tukaram Mohite, be

set at liberty forthwith, if not required to be detained

in any other case.

Rule made absolute in aforesaid terms.

        [N. J. JAMADAR, J.]                   [S. S. SHINDE, J.]