SC stays Bombay HC order of bail to Ramesh Mhatre

Shiv Sena municipal corporator Ramesh Mhatre. (Photo: ANI) MUMBAI: Supreme Court on Monday stays the bail granted recently by Bombay high court to Shiv Sena municipal corporator Ramesh Mhatre,73, in a case of assault on civic hospital doctors and warned that members of the medical fraternity cannot be assaulted at will in such a manner.The SC directed him to surrender within three days.A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta were hearing a bail cancellation plea of The Maharashtra government which challenge the HC order ofThe bench orally cited the general and larger implications an assault on doctors in the medical fraternity. “Medical fraternity serves the people. They cannot be attacked in this manner,” the bench said.Appearing for Mhatre, senior counsel Siddharth Dave said for bail cancellation a higher standard was required. He pointed out that trial was underway before a Magistrate with two prosecution witnesses having deposed and a woman doctor to depose on October 3.Mhatre cooperated with the probe and trial the SC was informed.The maximum sentence under the law is five years’ imprisonment for the main offence in the case and there was no obstruction caused in the trial caused, Mhatre’s counsel also submitted.While acknowledging the concerns raised by the bench, the counsel submitted that as a “criminal case” evidence had to form the basis of the outcome. The State had referred to Mhatre’s antecedents while seeking cancellation of his bail.Dave, submitted that Mhatre had been acquitted in 18 of the 19 cases cited against him. “Call for the records of those cases also,” the Court immediately said.The SC had on September 7 concerns over the cases of assaults on doctors and hospital staff in Maharashtra and said they cannot be treated as routine law-and-order.The Bombay HC bench led by then Acting Chief Justice RV Ghuge had taken the matter suo motu observing the seriousness of the assaults. And on July 27 in its initial order come down on Mhatre and the police and Justice Ghuge had noted that Mhatre was arrested 48 hours after the alleged assault. “Why do you (Mhatre) behave like this? Why beat the public? They are your voters. Surprising that a person who goes to voters and says ‘vote for me, I want to serve you’...after winning, starts beating people,” he said while hearing pleas filed by the corporator and others seeking bail on any stringent condition HC deemed fit. “Even in public life, you are for the public, are here for the public.”On August 7 the Bombay HC had fast tracked their trial and granted bail to Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre and three others accused behind bars in the July 6 assault on doctors including a woman doctor at a municipal hospital in Dombivli, but all four were to remain outside Maharashtra till the criminal trial begins. The HC had also framed a time-line for probe and prosecution to proceed swiftly and the time to be spent outside Maharashtra for all four would likely be a month.The endevour should be to complete trial in 3 months once charge is framed, the HC said.The ACJ Ghuge dictating the order in open court had said, “In a democracy an elected representative is by the people and for the people. If the elected representative is accused of assaulting his own voters, such a situation is bound to dent the fabric of democracy in this country and erode public confidence.’’Police arrested Mhatre on July 8 for allegedly slapping and punching a doctor and assaulting a resident medical officer. A local court granted him bail on July 14, while he was in a hospital. He was released but on July 18 the HC took up the matter suo motu and staying the bail order for all four, directed Mhatre to surrender. He did on July 19. Swati Deshpande is Senior editor at The Times of India, Mumbai, where she has been covering courts for over a decade. She is passionate about law and works towards enlightening people about their statutory, legal and fundamental rights. She makes it her job to decipher for the public the truth, be it in an intricate civil dispute or in a gruesome criminal case.