Vagal's bail plea hearing deferred till tomorrow

Mumbai, Mar 20 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today deferred till tomorrow the hearing into the bail plea of suspended Joint Commissioner of Police Shridhar Vagal, embroiled in the fake stamp papers case, as the arguments remained inconclusive today.

While moving the bail application on behalf of Vagal, Adv Shekhar Naphade contended that the Crime Branch has not been able to recover ''a single piece of evidence'' against his client.

He told the court that Vagal had been falsely implicated in the case and provisions of MCOCA had been wrongly applied on him.

Adv Naphade contended that the accused has already been chargesheeted by the CBI and has been languishing in jail for a long time. His custody is not required by CBI for further interrogation and, therefore, he should be released on bail.

Vagal was earlier granted interim bail by special MCOCA Court in Pune for undergoing medical treatment. He was later taken into custody after his interim bail expired.

Vagal, who is booked under MCOCA, had allegedly helped fake stamp paper case kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi while he was in the custody of the Crime Branch CID, Mumbai. Vagal has been accused of providing five-star facilities to Telgi.

Meanwhile, the bail plea of Rashid Kulkarni, who was Telgi's counsel, will come up for hearing tomorrow.

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