HC declines to transfer trial in 2013 builder murder case

The Bombay High Court on Monday refused to transfer the trial in the 2013 killing of Navi Mumbai builder Sunil Lahoria from one judge to another, noting no case was made out by the petitioner to pass an order effecting such a change.

A division bench of Justices S S Shinde and Manish Pitale, however, directed the Thane district sessions court to conduct the trial in the eight-year-old case on a day-to-day basis.

Sunil Lahoria was shot at and repeatedly stabbed by assailants on February 16, 2013, outside his office at Vashi in Navi Mumbai. He later died in a hospital.

The police had booked 14 persons in connection with the attack and also invoked provisions of the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) in the case.

The court was hearing a petition filed by the victims son, Sandeep Lahoria, seeking transfer of the trial in the case from the court of Judge R R Vaishnav of the Thane sessions court to another court.

Sandeep Lahoria, in his plea, raised apprehension that the judge was ''biased'' and was in a ''hurry'' to wrap up the trial, as a result of which, ''procedural and substantive errors'' were being committed.

The bench, while rejecting the plea, noted that an order transferring trial from a judge to another is not an exercise routinely undertaken.

The transfer of a criminal trial from the court of one presiding officer to the other, cannot be a routinely passed order and the apprehension expressed on behalf of the parties, seeking transfer, have to be reasonable and based on sufficient material, the HC observed.

The bench noted the role of a court and that of a public prosecutor is to ensure the accused are brought to book and proceedings are conducted in a fair manner so as to ensure justice is done, both to the accused as well as the victim.

Neither can a court be perceived to be accused- centric nor can it be perceived to be victim-centric in its approach, the judges said in their order.

''We expect the sessions court to conduct the trial expeditiously and on a day-to-day basis preferably from March 4, 2021, the HC said and disposed of the petition.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)