Sessions Judge in Bribery Case Seeks Pre-Arrest Bail from Bombay High Court
A sessions judge from Maharashtra is seeking pre-arrest bail amid bribery allegations involving a Rs 5 lakh demand for bail.
Satara, Maharashtra, Bribery, Judicial Officer, Anti-Corruption Bureau
Satara: So, there’s this sessions judge named Dhananjay Nikam who’s in a bit of hot water. He’s filed a petition in the Bombay High Court asking for pre-arrest bail. Why? Well, he’s been booked in a bribery case.
The Anti-Corruption Bureau, or ACB for short, claims that Nikam asked for a bribe of Rs 5 lakh to grant bail in a cheating case. That’s a pretty serious accusation, right? The court is set to hear his plea on January 15, since it involves a judicial officer.
Nikam insists he’s innocent and says he’s been wrongly implicated. His lawyer pointed out that the FIR doesn’t show any direct demand or acceptance of money from him. Plus, he claims he wasn’t even aware of any meetings between the complainant and the other accused.
Interestingly, he was on leave during key dates, which raises some questions about the allegations. The whole thing started when a woman filed a complaint about her father, who’s in custody for allegedly cheating someone with a fake job offer.
After a lower court denied bail, she filed a new application that was supposed to be heard by Nikam. The ACB alleges that two guys, Kharat and Kharat, demanded the bribe on Nikam’s behalf. They say they confirmed this during their investigation.
Nikam’s petition argues that he didn’t avoid hearing the bail application and didn’t promise any favorable orders. It’s a tangled web, for sure, and we’ll have to wait and see how it all unfolds.