Mumbai Police give clean chit to Jitendra Navlani; Bombay High Court disposes quashing plea

A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police on Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that the Preliminary Enquiry (PE) initiated against businessman Jitendra Navlani based on a complaint by Shiv Sena member Arvind Bhosale had been closed for want of evidence. [Jitendra Navlani v. Arvind Bhosale & Anr.].The Economic Offences Wing of the police registered a PE on Bhosale’s complaint in March this year and soon thereafter the SIT was formed, which took over the investigation.Navlani moved the High Court seeking quashing of the PE and interim protection from arrest.During the hearing of the plea today, the Chief Public Prosecutor Aruna Pai informed the Court of the SIT’s decision to close the PE after receiving approval from the Commissioner of Mumbai Police.The reason stated was that post investigation, the SIT did not find facts or evidence in support of the allegations made by the complainant.With this statement of Pai, the Bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and NR Borkar disposed off Navlani’s petition..In the petition, Navlani had claimed that the State of Maharashtra had initiated the inquiry through their minister which indicated that it was a politically connected matter.“This is a politically connected matter between the (then) ruling party and an ex-Commissioner of police who exposed the shallow and illegal dealing of the persons in power, a result of which there has been shaking up the entire state” the petition stated.Notably, the latest move of disbanding the SIT comes days after there has been a change in the government of Maharashtra..The allegations of extortion against Navlani, an alleged close aide of senior IPS officer Param Bir Singh, were first made by Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut in February this year.He claimed that Navlani, had allegedly extorted money from private companies between 2015 to 2021 by posing as an officer from the Enforcement Directorate (ED)..Based on the allegations, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Mumbai registered an FIR booking Navlani and unknown others in a corruption case.Apprehending action against its officers, ED petitioned the High Court seeking transfer of the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and interim protection to its officers.In its short reply, ACB claimed that since no ED official had been named in the FIR, it did not have locus to seek any relief in the FIR.“Timing of filing of the petition creates a suspicion on ED's motive indicating that the agency is trying to protect its officers by not allowing any investigation” their reply stated.The vacation bench of the High Court in June this year had granted an interim stay for 3 weeks on any possible probe against ED officials.