Antilia bomb scare case: Naresh Gaur moves Bombay High Court against stay on bail

Naresh Gaur, the first bail recipient in the Antilia bomb-scare case and the subsequent murder of businessman Mansukhlal Hiren, has moved the Bombay High Court challenging the stay granted on his bail by a Mumbai court..The special court under the National Investigation Agency (NIA) Act had granted bail to Gaur, a cricker bookie, who was accused of procuring SIM cards for prime accused Sachin Waze and co-accused, encounter specialist Pradeep Sharma..The special court after passing a reasoned order granting bail, had stayed the order to enable NIA to file an appeal before the High Court. The same was recorded in the roznama (register of the daily proceedings of a court case)..Aggrieved by the roznama, Gaur moved the High Court through Diamondwala & Co. with the present writ petition..The grounds raised by Gaur in the petition were as follows:That the special court had erred in applying Section 309 of Code of Criminal Procedure (power to postpone or adjourn proceedings);That the special court erred in not considering the constitutional rights of freedom of Gaur when after having considered the chargesheet the special court arrived at a prima facie conclusion that Gaur had no active knowledge of the conspiracy;That the special court failed to exercise judicially its discretionary power in granting stay to its own order of bail;That the roznama is bad in law and passed against principles of natural justice..Gaur prayed for quashing of the portion of the roznama granting stay on the bail order. He further prayed for an interim stay on the roznama..Special counsel Sandesh Patil, appearing for the NIA, referred to the Supreme Court decision in Nathu Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh to justify the stand taken by the special court.Justice SK Shinde, however, noted that the present case involves the issue of detention after grant of bail.Patil sought time to file his reply and the matter was, therefore, posted for further hearing on Monday..Gaur was arrested in March 2021 and was remanded to judicial custody. His first bail application was rejected in August 2021 on the ground that the investigation was going on and the chargesheet was yet to be filed. In September 2021, the NIA filed its chargesheet in the case, after which Gaur filed the present default bail application which was allowed by the special court. .Gaur was represented by Senior Advocate Shirish Gupte and advocate Aniket Nikam.