Saturday special sitting: Bombay High Court stays bail of Shiv Sena's Ramesh Mhatre in doctors assault case

In a special Saturday sitting, the Bombay High Court stayed the bail granted by a Kalyan court to Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Sukrya Mhatre in the case related to assault on doctors in Thane district earlier this month. 

A division bench of acting Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad took suo motu cognisance of media reports on the July 6 incident and registered a petition before proceeding to stay the bail order granted by a magistrate court at Kalyan.

After staying the bail order, the High Court directed Mhatre to surrender before the Vishnu Nagar police station in Dombivli.

“In the event he does not surrender or he is not reachable, the authorities will be at liberty to follow the due procedure for initiating steps for attaching his immovable properties,” the Court said.

The High Court also disapproved of the magistrate’s order granting bail, noting that Mhatre had a significant criminal history. It observed that 18 offences had been registered against him over the past 36 years, including serious crimes, though he had been acquitted in 17 of them.

“We find from the order granting bail that the magistrate did not even notice that the accused was not interrogated after recording his first statement,” the Bench noted. 

It added that Mhatre's conduct of leading a group of accused persons in an attack on doctors in a municipal hospital could not have been treated lightly, particularly in light of his antecedents.

“Considering the overall impact of the conduct of Mhatre and the effect that his actions have had on medical professionals, prima facie we do not find the magistrate could have passed an order which does not even deal with antecedents of the accused and the assault he caused on the three doctors,” the Court observed.

The magistrate had passed an order earlier this week granting Mhatre bail on a bond of ₹50,000 after his remand to judicial custody on July 13. 

Police had opposed the plea, citing the risk to the complainant and Mhatre’s alleged criminal antecedents. Mhatre, however, argued that he had been acquitted or discharged in most cases and that only one matter was pending. He also cited medical issues, including having a single kidney.

According to the FIR, the assault stemmed from a dispute over the treatment of a pregnant woman, after doctors advised shifting her to another hospital due to unavailability of NICU beds.

Mhatre is later alleged to have led an assault on the doctors.

The incident triggered widespread outrage and protests from the medical community, including warnings of a shutdown by the Indian Medical Association.