New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government on Samajwadi Party legislator Irfan Solanki's plea challenging the Allahabad High Court order rejecting his bail plea in connection with a case wherein he allegedly boarded a flight on a forged Aadhaar card.
A bench of justices S Ravindra Bhat and Aravind Kumar sought the UP government's reply to Solanki's plea. Solanki, who was represented by Senior Advocate Siddhartha Dave and Advocate on Record Pallavi Sharma, has challenged the Allahabad High Court order dated February 17, 2023.
Allahabad High Court has dismissed Solanki's bail application.
The Petitioner Solanki, who is MLA in Uttar Pradesh, claimed that being a political figure from the minority community in the State of Uttar Pradesh, he is at the receiving end of recurring malicious prosecutions and the present FIR being the 14th in such order, is also borne out of political vendetta.
"It is respectfully submitted that 5 of such false FIRs against the Petitioner have culminated in favourable closure reports and in 4 of such FIRs the Petitioner is on bail and has not breached any condition thereof till date and in the remaining 5 FIRs of the year 2022, the investigation is yet not complete despite the expiry of significant time," the petitioner said in his plea.
Solanki claimed that he has been roped into a false case where it has been alleged that he has caused the forgery of the Aadhar Card of a Co-Accused and had used the same to travel from New Delhi to Mumbai via an Indigo Flight on 11.11.22 in order to evade arrest in connection with another FIR against him.
The petitioner Solanki claimed that there is no material to show that it was the Petitioner who forged the recovered Aadhar Card or that the Petitioner, as seen in the CCTV footage at the Airports of Delhi and Mumbai was in fact, travelling on the basis of the recovered forged Aadhar Card.
"Despite, the aforesaid position, the High Court has dismissed the Petitioner's prayer for bail on the ground that he being a Member of the Legislative Assembly has forged an Aadhar Card and has used the same for travelling to Mumbai," the petitioner said.
Adding further, he submitted that the finding of HC is a re-iteration of the allegation in the FIR and the chargesheet.
"The same is also not final in nature and pre-mature as no conclusive guilt can be imputed on the Petitioner at the present stage where the trial is yet to commence," the petitioner said as it claimed that out of the 9 accused named in the FIR, two of the accused persons were dropped from the array of the accused in the Charge Sheet and rest all the 6 co-accused were enlarged on bail by the High Court. —ANI
