MSCB case: Court disposes of pleas filed by Anna Hazare, others seeking transfer of hearing

The transfer pleas were filed in April before the Principal Judge of the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court expressing apprehension about receiving a fair and free hearing before the trial court judge.

A special court on Friday disposed of pleas filed by social activist Anna Hazare and others in the Maharashtra State Co-operative Bank case seeking a transfer of the matter to another court.

The transfer pleas were filed in April before the Principal Judge of the Mumbai City Civil and Sessions Court expressing apprehension about receiving a fair and free hearing before the trial court judge.

Recently, judges were transferred through administrative orders. These included the trial court judge hearing the case. Due to the transfers, the case will now be heard by a new judge, making the transfer applications infructuous.

The trial court was hearing applications filed against the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing’s “C” summary report in the case, which gave a clean chit to all being probed, including many state politicians.

Hazare and others, including a few members of the sugar cooperatives, had filed a protest petition seeking to be heard on the closure report by the EOW. It was claimed that they had sought an adjournment of four weeks to inspect over 75,000 documents but the trial court had denied the same. Following this, they had filed a transfer plea expressing apprehension of a fair hearing.

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