The Bombay High Court on Wednesday (May 20) quashed the First Information Reports (FIRs) lodged against Sanjay Pandey— the former Commissioner of Mumbai Police who also served as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Maharashtra, and a lawyer— who were accused of deliberately re-opening a criminal case against a businessman and forcing him to give certain statements against Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and his Deputy Eknath Shinde.

A special division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam pronounced the order in court.

A detailed order is yet to be uploaded.

The bench was seized with a clutch of petitions filed by Pandey and also advocate Shekhar Jagtap along with other individuals.

As per the FIRs lodged against Thane and Colaba Police Stations, the businessman Sanjay Punamiya has claimed that a criminal case pending against him was closed in 2016 and yet Pandey re-opened the same.

The businessman alleged that Jagtap too forged documents and appeared as a Special Public Prosecutor in the case pending against him without any official appointment letter.

Notably, the criminal case, which was allegedly re-opened also named former Mumbai Police Commissioner and controversial cop Parambir Singh. Both Punamiya and Singh were accused of extortion.

Multiple judges of the High Court had recused from hearing these clutch of petitions and it is only after the Supreme Court's intervention that a special bench was constituted to hear and decide these petitions.

Case Title: Shekhar Kakasaheb Jagtap vs State of Maharashtra (Writ Petition 3839 of 2024)