Police seek transfer of Mahajan case

New Delhi: Seeking to defer the hearing on the bail petition of late BJP leader Pramod Mahajan' son Rahul, facing charges of drug abuse, Delhi Police on Sunday moved a city court for transfer of the case to a special court.

In a revision petition heard by Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) N K Gupta, police sought the transfer of the case from a metrpolitan magistrate's court to a designated court which is empowered under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotrophic Substances Act.

Police alleges that the Metropolitan Magistrates (MM) are not empowered to try such offences.

Apart from this, police also prayed the ASJ to expunge the remarks made by the Metropolitan Magistrate A K Chaturvedi who, while hearing the bail petition of Mahajan, had termed "fallacious" the public prosecutor's argument that it did not have the power to hear the same.

Police also prayed the court to defer the hearing of his bail petition till this revision petition is disposed off.

"The Metropolitan Magistrate has no power to hear this case when a special court designated to hear all matters under the NDPS Act is already in existence," police said.

The court, after hearing the argumemts of the public prosecutor, issued notices to Mahajan, who is currently lodged in Tihar jail here, and his counsel Sunil Mittal and put the petition for further hearing on Monday.

The Metropolitan Magistrate's court, while deferring Mahajan's bail hearing had said "the jurisdiction to conduct trial automatically and inherently includes the right to grant bail and, therefore, this argument is rejected as being devoid of any foundation and appears to be an illustration of intellectual bankruptcy".

The petition gains significance as the prosecution is trying to book Rahul under section 27A (financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) of the NDPS Act which attracts harsher punishment.

The Metropolitan Magistrate, allowing Mahajan's opposition to fresh charge levelled against him, had ruled out the applicability of section 27A in this case.

Meanwhile, police sources said that it had found "vital clues" in the case and made recoveries in Srinagar during their probe there.

Police said they may move the court for another opportunity to question Mahajan in the wake of fresh findings.