Retired Bombay High Court judge and Congress leader Abhay Thipsay on Wednesday defended fugitive businessman Nirav Modi in a London court via video conference and claimed that the charges levelled by the CBI against Nirav Modi will not hold in India. The CBI has charged Nirav Modi with criminal conspiracy, cheating and dishonestly inducting delivery of property.
Who is Abhay Thipsay who is defending Nirav Modi
Abhay Thipsay is a Congress leader who joined the grand old party in 2018 after meeting the then Congress President Rahul Gandhi. He had joined Congress ‘to fight communal forces and communalism’. He later launched a book blaming Hindus for bomb blasts done by Islamic radicals. He was the same judge who convicted 9 out of the 17 accused in the Best Bakery case. Justice Thipsay claimed that the Hindus carried out the 2008 Malegaon blasts.
He gave an interview to Jyoti Punwani, who is a known anti-BJP professional activist. That interview says:
“Your bail orders to suspected Maoists and terror accused couldn’t have made you popular with the authorities. What made you give such bold judgments? In fact, you were even known as the ‘bail judge’.“
Thipsay: I’ve always decided bail on the merits of the case. I’ve never been scared of taking decisions in accordance with the law. What is ‘bold’ in these judgments? In court, there can be only one conclusion, based on the evidence presented. Many a times the crime alleged is enormous, but there is no evidence against the accused. Courts are not supposed to see what’s not there….”
He thus defends his orders giving bail to Maoists and terror accused on grounds of ‘lack of evidence’, but doesn’t extend the same logic to Sohrabuddin case accused being discharged due to ‘lack of evidence’.
You could read more about him here.
