Mumbai: The Bombay high court has paved the way for a man found guilty under MCOCA, the law dealing with organised crime, to contest the BMC election by staying his conviction in a 2009 case of alleged extortion. The high court said the right of the election hopeful, Vinod Ghogale (43), to participate in the democratic process was likely to be affected if the conviction was not stayed, given that an appeal by him had been admitted but was yet to be heard. Ghogale filed his nomination form as an independent candidate for Ward No. 119 in Vikhroli East on Dec 30 — the last day of filing of nominations — along with a submission that his petition seeking permission to contest the election was pending in the high court.The FIR in the case, registered with the Vikhroli police station, said that several members of an organised crime syndicate headed by an accused, Kumar Pillai, who was then absconding, were involved in a firing incident to extort Rs 50 lakh from a builder in 2009. Ghogale, the fifth accused, was arrested on April 21, 2010.The role attributed to Ghogale in a confession statement by a co-accused, Sanjit alias Lafda Shetty, was that he was aware of organised crime syndicate activities and “took bullets from a shop of a co-accused on one occasion and took delivery of a box containing pistols, live cartridges and cash on another, and took training for loading and unloading firearms”.In 2015, the special trial court for the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) convicted him along with others and sentenced him to 10 years’ rigorous imprisonment. Ghogale has already served seven years so far. He appealed against the conviction before the high court in 2016. In March 2017, the high court rejected his plea for suspension of sentence and bail. He then moved the Supreme Court, which granted him bail in Oct 2017 after suspending his sentence. On Thursday, Ghogale told TOI that he was working with the BJP for the last eight years and was currently the Maharashtra state vice-president of the Akhil Bharatiya Kamgar Karmachari Sangh. He worked as a trade union leader in the aviation sector and also the hospitality sector, and worked at the grassroots level during the recent Lok Sabha and assembly elections.Justice Sandesh Patil on the high court vacation bench in his interim order observed that Ghogale already served seven years behind bars. “Although right to contest election is not a fundamental right, yet his right to participate in a democratic process is surely likely to be effected,” the high court said.Ghogale’s lawyer said that while filing his nomination form he had informed the authorities that his petition seeking a stay of the conviction verdict was filed on Dec 22 and was pending before the high court. Ghogale’s counsel, Subhash Jha, on Wednesday argued that Ghogale, who filled his nomination form, intended to contest the civic polls and that unless the conviction is stayed, he cannot contest under the law. Jha said Ghogale so far never sought a stay of his conviction. Section 8 of the Representation of People Act bar persons from contesting elections if they are convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years.Mayur Sonavane, additional public prosecutor for the state, sought dismissal of Ghogale’s plea, saying that after the 2015 conviction there was another offence registered against Ghogale in an alleged criminal conspiracy for an attempt to murder case.The high court said: “The only question which arises before this court is whether the impugned judgment (of conviction) and order deserves to be stayed in light of the fact that the sentence is of a fixed imprisonment of 10 years … . The appeal was not taken for hearing since Feb 2016. The appeal is admitted.” The high court noted that, on merits, prima facie the question in appeal is of prior prosecution sanction and also the mandatory requirement of two prior chargesheets within 10 years against each accused in the case to invoke MCOCA.The high court said that pending final disposal of his application, the “implementation and execution” of the trial court judgment in the MCOCA special case is stayed. The high court posted his plea for hearing before a regular bench post-vacation, on Jan 21.
