In an important development, the district sessions court has granted bail to Mussoorie MlA Ganesh Joshi on Tuesday. The MlA was sent to jail in connection with the case of police horse Shaktiman sustaining injury during a BJP protest. However, Joshi would have to furnish a bail bond of Rs 25,000. He had applied seeking a bail in the district sessions court on Monday.
While arguing for the MlA’s bail, the defense lawyers said that he had been arrested without police caring to investigate the case properly. They said that the mounted police horse had not been injured from bamboo sticks held by the MlA. They called Joshi a victim of political conspiracy. After hearing both the parties, the court gave Joshi bail on conditions that he would not intimidate witnesses and would co-operate with the investigators.
Another BJP party worker Pramod Bora who had been arrested from Haldwani in Nainital district on March 17 on the same charge by the Dehradun police has also secured bail from the district session court on Tuesday. Bora would have to furnish a bail bond of Rs 25, 000. Joshi and Bora were sent to Suddhowala jail for 14 day- judicial custody after being produced in the court, Dakrani (Vikasnagar) on March 18.
The MlA filed the plea in the wake of his earlier bail plea, filed at the court of additional chief judicial magistrate Dehradun, regarding the case being rejected on March 20.
Dehradun police had arrested Joshi on Friday on the charge of assaulting the horse during BJP’s Vidhan Sabha Gherao rally on March 14. It should be mentioned here that Nehru Colony police had taken a suo moto initiative over the assault on the horse and a case under sections 429/188/353/147/332/148 of IPC, 7 law Criminal Amendment Act and under section 11 (l) of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act had been registered against MlA Joshi, Pramod Bora, Jogendra Pundir and some other BJP members in Nehru Colony police station on March 14. Pundir has been absconding after his name came to fore. High Court had ordered Pundir to surrender in the lower court in a week.