HC allows Manish Khatau to go to London for studies

Mumbai, Jan 24 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today allowed industrialist Mahendra Khatau's son Manish, who is embroiled in a reckless driving case, to go to the UK for further studies.

Manish had been booked in a reckless driving case, in which a police constable was grievously hurt on August 14, 2005, and he had to surrender his passport to the police.

The High Court, last week, had directed the police to release Manish's passport to enable him to renew his visa for the UK. He was, however, disallowed from leaving the country.

Today Manish's counsels Girish Kulkarni and Amit Desai filed an application with a prayer that Manish be allowed to go to London to pursue a business foundation course at the European Business School.

A division bench comprising justices J N Patel and R S Mohite, while permitting Manish to leave the country, however, directed the latter not to drive any mechanised vehicle in India.

Manish's lawyers had earlier told the court that their 21-year-old client was ready to pay adequate compensation to the accident victim, as directed by the court.

Manish Khatau has been charged with causing grevious hurt to police constable Jitendra Rokde who had signaled him to slow down during a ''nakabandi'' on the eve of Independence Day near Police Gymkhana at Marine Drive. However, manish had rammed his car into the barricades in front of the Gymkhana and one of the barricades had hit Rokde on the forehead, injuring him seriously.

UNI