20 May,2026 10:32 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Representational image. File pic
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday quashed an extortion FIR registered against former Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pandey and other persons in Thane.
As reported by PTI, a reasoned order by the bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Suman Shyam is not available yet.
The First Information Report was registered on a complaint lodged by builder-cum-businessman Sanjay Punamiya on August 26, 2024.
Punamiya had alleged that Pandey misused his position as DGP to extort money in 2021. Pandey, along with others, coerced him into giving false statements by threatening to unlawfully reopen old cases and fabricate false FIRs to trap him, he claimed.
Further, the businessman claimed that while he was admitted to a hospital, officers, citing Sanjay Pandey's instructions, pressured him to falsely implicate Devendra Fadnavis (then Deputy Chief Minister) and Eknath Shinde (the then Chief Minister) in an alleged Urban Land Ceiling (ULC) scam in exchange for dropping charges against him.
Punamiya alleged his younger brother was threatened and forced to pay Rs 35 lakh out of a demanded Rs 1 crore to avoid further false cases.
Besides Pandey, advocate Shekhar Jagtap, and members of the Agarwal family were also named in the FIR, as per PTI.
On the contrary, Pandey, represented by advocate Rahul Kamerkar, strongly refuted all the allegations.
In his application, seeking quashing of the FIR, Pandey contended that the case is a product of "political vendetta" initiated after his retirement. The other key arguments raised by Pandey's lawyer in the Bombay High Court included an unexplained three-year delay in registering the FIR.
He further pointed out that the alleged events took place in 2021, but the complaint was filed only in 2024, as per PTI.
In a different scenario, the Bombay High Court earlier last week pulled up the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for allegedly carrying out a demolition of a property in 'alarming haste'.
Justice Milind N. Jadhav observed that the civic body appeared to have acted in an "extremely high-handed manner" after demolishing a structure only 13 days after issuing a notice under Section 351 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.
The remarks came while the court was hearing an appeal filed by Ashok Mahadev Kule against the BMC.
(With inputs from PTI)
