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Shah's bail plea hearing to resume on Wednesday

The hearing in the bail plea of diamond merchant and film financier Bharat Shah was postponed after his lawyer sought to know the charges against Shah and demanded that he be allowed to meet his lawyers.

Justice S S Parkar of the Bombay High Court told Public Prosecutor Vijaya Kapse-Tahilramani to inform on Wednesday what material the state had against the accused.

The judge also called for Shah's remand application and the FIR lodged against him for his perusal.

Shah was not present in the court during the hearing.

Shah is booked under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and stands accused of having a nexus with the underworld, specifically Dawood Ibrahim's Dubai-based lieutenant Chhota Shakeel.

Earlier, on Tuesday Shah's counsel Ashok Desai said that his client was yet to see the FIR, if any, against him. He also demanded to see the remand application, if any, against Shah.

Desai cited the Supreme Court judgement in the D K Basu case in 1997, which held that an accused had a right to know the grounds of his arrest, to support his argument that Shah had a constitutional right to be told of the charges against him.

Desai pointed out that the apex court had also ordered that its judgement be circulated to all the police stations in the country.

He reminded the police that, under the circumstances, they could invite punishment under Section 16 of the IPC for violation of the law and pointed out that a FIR is a public document.

He also demanded that Shah be allowed to meet his lawyers arguing that the police cannot orally tell Shah about his arrest and that there had to be some official record about the arrest.

He asked the court how he was supposed to seek bail if he did not know the charges for which Shah was being detained.

He reminded the court that the law does not provide for detention without being informed of the charges, except under exceptional circumstances, which did not apply in this case.

He demanded to know how the press and other media had access to documents pertaining to the case while the defence was being kept in the dark.

Shah's son Rashesh was present in the court.

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Bharat Shah accused of nexus with underworld

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