Year 2022 saw political slugfests in Maharashtra courtrooms

Political turmoil in Maharashtra  spilled over to the courts in 2022 with the arrests of leaders like Sanjay Raut, Nawab Malik and independent MP from Amravati Navneet Rana in different cases and subsequent legal battles over their bail applications.

The courts also dealt with litigation related to the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case of 2017 with some of the accused getting relief.

In February, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and former minister in the then Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government Nawab Malik moved the Bombay High Court, seeking to quash an alleged money laundering case registered against him by the Enforcement Directorate.

In March, the ED arrested Malik in the case and subsequently a special court for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) cases rejected his bail applications. Malik has now moved the High Court for bail.

April saw another high-profile case when Mumbai Police arrested Navneet Rana and her husband, MLA Ravi Rana after they announced that they would recite the Hanuman Chalisa outside then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s private residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai.

About ten days later, the couple was granted bail by a court. But arguably, the case that dominated headlines the most was that of Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut. The high-profile Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) leader was arrested by the ED in July in a money laundering case linked to alleged fraud in the redevelopment project of a chawl (tenement).

Raut spent more than 100 days in prison before the special PMLA court granted him bail. The judge also termed his arrest as illegal, without reason and a witch-hunt.

In April, Bollywood actor Salman Khan moved the Bombay High Court challenging the summons issued to him by a magistrate’s court on a complaint filed by a journalist over a 2019 dispute. The HC stayed the summons.

Anil Ambani got relief from the High Court in the same month when the court directed the Income Tax department not to take any coercive action against the industrialist on a show-cause notice seeking to prosecute him under the Black Money Act.