Bombay HC orders enquiry into how BJP's Somaiya got copy of order in case against former minister Mushrif

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The Bombay High court on Friday ordered an enquiry into how BJP leader Kirit Somaiya obtained a copy of an order passed by a magistrate in a case where former Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrif is among the accused.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sharmila Deshmukh directed the principal district judge of Pune to conduct the enquiry.

It was a "serious matter" to find out how somebody who is not a party to the proceedings got a judicial order copy without applying for a certified copy, the bench said.

The HC was hearing a plea filed by Mushrif, a Nationalist Congress Party leader, seeking the quashing of a First Information Report registered against him in Kolhapur for alleged cheating.

There was a "deliberate attempt" to implicate him in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) cases, he alleged.

The petition also claimed that Somaiya got a copy of a summons issued by a magistrate against some accused in the case even though he was not a litigant.

Somaiya had levelled corruption allegations against Mushrif.

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The high court had earlier posted the matter for further hearing on March 24 and directed the Maharashtra police not to take any coercive action until then.

The FIR is related to alleged collection of money from the members of a cooperative sugar factory in western Maharashtra's Kolhapur district.

As per the complaint filed by a member of Kolhapur's Santaji Ghorpade sugar factory, the NCP leader allegedly asked members to deposit Rs 10,000 each and promised sugar worth the amount. But they did not get any sugar, it alleged.

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