Mumbai: A court, while hearing the bail application of the father-in-law of former India cricketer and Trinamool Congress MP Yusuf Pathan and two others in a road rage assault case, pulled up the investigating officer on Tuesday for filing a report supporting grant of bail even before it had issued a notice on the application.Metropolitan magistrate A A Kulkarni reserved the order on the bail application for Wednesday. Byculla police on Monday arrested Yusuf Pathan’s father-in-law Khaliq Khan (66), the latter’s son, Umarshad Khaliq Khan, and a relative, Sohaib Khan. Defence advocate Dayanand Dere, appearing for the accused, filed a bail application on Tuesday, arguing that a cross-FIR has also been registered against the complainant and others. He said Khaliq is a senior citizen and has no role in the alleged crime, police have already seized CCTV footage and the purported weapons, and the investigation is nearly complete—grounds on which bail should be granted. Complainant Yusuf Khan’s counsel, Pratap Nimbalkar, strongly opposed the application after investigating officer Sukhadeo Sanap submitted a no-objection report supporting grant of bail. In response, Dere said, “These allegations are false. I have placed on record that the court had issued a notice, after which the investigating officer filed the report. The only issue was that the notice did not bear a date, which led to the confusion.” Nimbalkar countered, “This haste is inexplicable unless the investigating officer had a predetermined agenda to facilitate bail. The investigating officer’s conduct appears to be a deliberate attempt to bypass procedural safeguards and deny the complainant his legitimate right to oppose bail.” Yusuf Khan was returning home in his car on April 18 when he allegedly drove through a puddle, splashing water on Shoaib. Yusuf Khan stopped and apologised, but Shoaib, in a fit of rage, allegedly assaulted him and damaged his car’s windshield. Yusuf Khan then went home and informed his family, who urged him to file a police complaint. Later, when he and his family were stepping out of their building, Shoaib, along with Khaliq and Umarshad—who is a builder—allegedly confronted them and assaulted Yusuf Khan and his brother, Salman, using bamboo sticks.
