The Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), Panaji granted today conditional bail to Congress leader Dharmesh Saglani, who was arrested by the Crime Branch in connection with the alleged ransom case. However, Judge Pooja Desai has made it a condition for him to be present at the vicinity for ten days from tomorrow and to be present when called by the police for questioning.
Crime Branch police had arrested the suspect Dharmesh Saglani from the beach at Palolem on Monday evening in connection with a case of alleged assault on Ankit Jajodia from Faridabad and also for allegedly trying to extort Rs 50 lakh from him. According to the Crime Branch, Jajodia has been living in Goa for a long time while often playing in Goa's offshore casinos.
He was booked for offences under different sections of the IPC, including extortion, wrongful confinement, and assault and threatening before being produced in court last evening. His bail application was heard in court which was presented by Congress MLA and Adv. Carlos Ferreira. The court, while granting bail to Saglani, directed him to produce a personal guarantee of Rs 50,000 and two guarantors of similar amount. Witnesses should not be lured or intimidated. There are conditions to be present when the police call for an inquiry.
After receiving bail, Saglani told reporters, "Justice has prevailed. I trust in the law and bureaucracy. I have cooperated with the police and will do the same in the future. Let the people know the truth. The people already know the truth, I don't have to say it. The people of Sanquelim and Goa already know what's the truth.
"Action against Saglani is for political purposes": Adv. Ferreira
"The action against Saglani is politically motivated. He had made his opponent sweat in the assembly elections and his revenge was avenged. The incident took place in December 2021 and a complaint was lodged in January 2022. Why no action was taken at that time. Why did the police take a month without taking any action after the counting of votes? " Adv. Ferreira told reporters.
Congress candidate Saglani had contested against BJP’s Pramod Sawant from the Sanquelim assembly segment in the Goa Assembly Elections 2022. Saglani had lost to Sawant by a narrow margin of 666 votes.