Mumbai: The Bombay high court (HC) on Monday clubbed all the 22 FIRs against Marathi actor Ketaki Chitale and the six FIRs against Nashik student Nitin Bhamre – both of whom were arrested in May this year for sharing allegedly offensive posts against Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on social media.
The HC directed the first FIR filed against each of them to be treated as the main FIR and the remaining FIRs to be counted as statements against them. As a result, the FIRs against Chitale will be clubbed with the FIR at Kalwa police station while the one against Bhamre will be clubbed with the one at Naupada police station in Thane.
The HC also asked the state to file its reply to Chitale’s petition for quashing the FIRs, compensation and declaring her arrest as illegal.
The division bench of justice Nitin Jamdar and justice NR Borkar which was hearing the applications of both Chitale and Bhamre was informed by advocate Harekrishna Mishra fir Chitale that as per Supreme Court directions there could not be multiple FIRs against an individual for the alleged same crime and hence the same should be clubbed together.
Mishra had submitted that in light of the bail granted to Chitale by a lower court, she was seeking quashing of the FIRs and even sought a declaration that her arrest was illegal and she should be given compensation for her illegal incarceration.
The bench in an earlier hearing had held that as the applicants were seeking the first FIRs lodged against them at Kalwa police station and Naupada police stations respectively, the complainants in the other FIRs should also be provided with an opportunity to be heard.
On Monday, considering the Supreme Court directions, the bench directed clubbing of the FIRs in both cases and taking down statements of the remaining complainants in the first FIR each under section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The bench also directed the state to file replies to Chitale’s application and posted a hearing of the two applications to September 6.
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