Court allows BJP leader to withdraw plea over FIR against donations for INS Vikrant

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday permitted BJP leader Kirit Somaiya to withdraw his plea that had been filed to seek quashing of an FIR that was registered against him and his son in a case related to collecting donations for INS Vikrant.

Somaiya and his son had been booked for allegedly misappropriating Rs 57 crore collected to save the aircraft-carrier INS Vikrant from being decommissioned. While the naval ship was scrapped and didn't get saved, Somaiya had alleged political rivalry and pointed fingers at the then Maha Vikas Aghadi, led by Uddhav Thackeray, behind the registration of the FIR.

After the MVA government was toppled, the Mumbai police, which had earlier registered the FIR, filed a C Summary report before the Esplanade Magistrate court.

A 'C Summary' report is filed when the police concludes after investigation that the FIR is filed due to mistake of facts or the offence complained about is of a civil nature and the information given to police may be neither true nor false. With the filing of the C Summary report, the police seek closure of the case.

Advocate Ashok Mundargi, representing Somaiya, submitted before the bench of Justices Ajay Gadkari and Neela Gokhale that the police had filed a C Summary report on December 14, 2022, so there was no reason to pursue the plea for quashing the FIR any further, and thus it be permitted to be withdrawn.

Mundargi, however, requested that the court direct the Magistrate Court to expeditiously deal with the C Summary in accordance with law.

"It has been one and a half years, and the Magistrate is not deciding the issue. The notice was also issued to the complainant, but no order has been passed so far," submitted Mundargi.

The bench thus, while granting liberty to Somaiya to pursue the C Summary report proceedings, "requested" the Magistrate court to deal with it expeditiously.