Magistrate court to hear plea against Mankar today

PUNE: A magistrate court on Wednesday will hear the application filed by the anti-extortion cell of the crime branch to declare suspended PMC corporator Deepak Mankar, suspended senior vice-president of the city Congress, as a proclaimed offender in a land-grabbing case.
Inspector Kishore Jadhav on Tuesday filed an application before judicial magistrate first class K.P.R.S.Rathore for declaring Mankar as a proclaimed offender under section 82 of the CrPC.
The application, filed through assistant public prosecutor Ashok Joshi, said that Mankar and three others have gone absconding after sessions judge Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi had rejected his anticipatory bail application recently. The application adds that Mankar should be declared as a proclaimed offender because he was evading arrest and has not yet approached the high court for bail.
The application also said that several police teams have conducted searches at the office and residence of Mankar. besides the residences of his relatives and other people known to him. Searches were also conducted at Kopargaon, Deogaon, Mumbai, Wadgaon Maval, Pune rural, Sindhudurg and Ahmednagar, but Mankar could not be traced.
Ashok Joshi told TOI that he has sought a day's time from the court to argue on the application filed by the police.
He added that he would pray for issuing an arrest warrant against Mankar as it is a pre-requisite for obtaining a proclamation order from the court. As per the usual procedure, the police, after receiving a warrant, will have to make some progress in the investigation before obtaining a proclamation order.
Meanwhile, police commissioner Satya Pal Singh has directed all the deputy commissioners of police to intensify their hunt for tracing Mankar and other suspects.
Of the 11 suspects in the case, four including Mankar has been denied bail while five others got bail. A woman has obtained an interim bail till Wednesday. One suspect is absconding.