The Bombay High Court has reserved its order on Shiv Sena (Eknath Shinde) leader Akhil Chitre’s plea to quash an FIR related to an assault on a lawyer.
The Bombay High Court on Friday reserved its order on a plea filed by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader and former Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) member Akhil Chitre, seeking quashing of an FIR registered against him in 2020 for allegedly assaulting a lawyer on court premises.
During the hearing, the bench made strong observations, stating, “You had no business to enter the court premises to assault advocates.”
The case dates back to a period when MNS was engaged in a standoff with Amazon for allegedly not including Marathi as a language option on its platform in Maharashtra.
According to the prosecution, in October 2020, Amazon Transportation Services was allegedly threatened by Chitre and other MNS members. In response, Amazon filed a civil suit before the Dindoshi City Civil Court seeking to restrain Chitre and his associates from entering its premises. The suit, filed by advocates Sushant Joshi and Akshay Purkar, resulted in an ex parte order in Amazon’s favour.
On December 4, 2020, Joshi was unwell, and advocate Durgesh Gupta appeared on behalf of Amazon. After the hearing was adjourned and Gupta exited the courtroom, he was reportedly approached by unidentified individuals. One of them asked his name and then questioned, “You brought this stay, have you sent this notice to Raj Thackeray Saheb?” before two individuals allegedly began assaulting and threatening him.
As other lawyers gathered at the scene, the attackers fled. Around the same time, Chitre was seen near the court, attempting to move his parked car. He was stopped by the lawyers, and the individual who initially questioned Gupta was also seen nearby.
A case was subsequently registered at Dindoshi police station under IPC sections 341 (wrongful restraint), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 504 (intentional insult), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 34 (common intention).
Additional Public Prosecutor Anil Chate told the court on Friday that the investigation was complete, with two assailants identified and CCTV footage showing Chitre’s presence at the scene. He added that the chargesheet is ready to be filed.
Appearing for Chitre, advocate Tapan Thatte pointed out that the court had earlier directed the prosecution not to file a chargesheet against his client. He argued that Chitre was not named as one of the assailants and was merely in his car at the time.
