Panaji: Goa Bench of Bombay High Court on Thursday granted transit anticipatory bail to Shantanu Kar Chaudhuri who has been booked by Cyber Crime of Delhi police in connection with toolkit case.
Single Bench M S Jawalkar granted transit anticipatory bail to Chaudhuri providing him protection for ten days till March 12, 2021 to order to enable him to approach the competent Court for seeking appropriate reliefs.
The accused told the court that he is a resident of Goa since August 2020 and has no connection with the toolkit case.
As per the submission by his lawyer in the court, Chaudhuri is an ardent environmentalist, actively involved in seeking ecologically sustainable solutions and proposing an environment oriented approach towards policy making.
He stated that he has volunteered for a well known environmental organization called “Extinction Rebellion” and is presently the South Asia Liaison in charge of the organization.
Advocate C A Ferreira, the lawyer representing Chaudhuri pointed out that the contention of the police is that one Nikita Jacob, Shantanu Muluk and Disha Ravi are alleged to have conspired to create the online “toolkit” and the applicant reiterated that he has nothing to do with the making of the alleged “toolkit”.
The lawyer contented that he has been falsely implicated and that he has no connection whatsoever in the offences alleged in the said FIR.
Chaudhuri contended that he is resident of Goa since August, 2020 and as the offence has been registered at New Delhi, it would take time to reach to New Delhi and to file an application for anticipatory bail.
“The apprehension of arrest is made out by the applicant. The reasons for apprehension of arrest is justified in the facts and circumstances set out,” the court observed.
The Bench noted that FIR is lodged at New Delhi and any regular application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of Cr.P.C. would be considered by the competent Court at Delhi.
“Therefore, the applicant is entitled for protection by way of granting transit bail to approach to the competent authority for seeking appropriate reliefs,” the court said.
Earlier, the Bombay High court’s principal bench had granted transit bail to advocate Nikita Jacob, a suspect in the case and the Aurangabad bench had granted transit bail to Shantanu Muluk.
