Kalgi's plea to surrender before court dismissed

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat HC on Thursday dismissed application filed by Dinesh Kalgi - kingpin of cricket betting and gambling in the state, in which he sought direction to a magisterial court that he be allowed to surrender before a court and not city crime branch.
Kalgi has been booked under anti-gambling laws following a raid conducted by an officer of the crime branch, SM Chaudhary, on October 31 in Usmanpura area.A group was caught betting on Australia-Sri Lanka T20 match. He sought anticipatory bail from a sessions court, but was dismissed because all charges leveled against Kalgi and his associates were bailable.
While rejecting Kalgi's anticipatory bail plea, the sessions court ordered that he should surrender, if he wanted to, before the investigating officer (IO), who will act as per the provisions of Section 436 of CrPC. This section has provision that an accused facing charges that are bailable is entitled for bail either by the IO or by a magisterial court.
Meanwhile, one of Kalgi's associates went before a metropolitan magistrate to surrender, but the court asked him to go to the investigating agency. This led Kalgi to move HC claiming that Chaudhary had threatened him of severe beating, even if he obtained bail from a court. His counsel contended that Chaudhary's abuses and threats have been video-taped.
Government pleader Prakash Jani cited various authorities in this regard, including a Gujarat high court order, which held that an accused has to surrender before police authority only even if he is slapped with charges that are bailable ones. After hearing the arguments, Justice MR Shah dismissed Kalgi's plea.