HC stays trial in 'Provogue' case

Mumbai, Jun 4 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today stayed the trial of a drugS case involving Provogue director Salil Chaturvedi till July nine.

Acting on a petition filed by the State government against the trial court's order to separate it into three cases, a single judge bench of Justice V K Tahilramani today stayed the trial of the case till July nine, when the matter will come up for further hearing.

Vishal Mandhanani, the then manager of Provogue fashion house was arrested by the police from the international airport on January 2005 while carrying drugs. Later, two drug peddlers and two police officers of Airport police station, accused of shielding Mandhanani, were arrested.

Thereafter, Chaturvedi too was arrested as three grams of cocaine was recovered from his house. Three more persons of Nigerian origin were later arrested in the case.

When the time to frame charges in the case came, the special NDPS trial court directed the prosecution to frame charges against only three of the accused -- Nigerians Sako Hashim, David Lukanga and Thomas Eje -- who allegedly supplied the drugs to other accused persons.

Under the same order dated March 8, 2007, the trial court also directed the prosecution to separate cases against Salil Chaturvedi and five other accused as it felt that those were distinct incidents.

The State took objection to this order claiming that all three incidents formed part of a single transaction and were covered by conspiracy.

UNI