The Bombay High Court on Monday (July 10) granted bail to Goa Pan masala owner and gutka baron Jagdish Joshi. In January this year, Jagdish Joshi and two others were sentenced to 10 years in jail by a special MCOCA court for conspiring with fugitive and most wanted underworld don Dawood Ibrahim to set up gutka units for the don in Pakistan in 2002.
Timeline of the case
2002
JM Joshi, others conspire and help Dawood set up gutka manufacturing units in Pakistan.
2005
Case transferred to CBI after roles of Joshi and Rasiklal Dhariwal surface.
2016
Trial begins.
2023
Special MCOCA court sentences three accused including Gutka baron JM Joshi to 10 years in jail and Rs 15 lakh penalty.
The case and convicts
Those sentenced and convicted in the case were Joshi, Jamiruddin Ansari and Farooq Mansuri alias Farooq Takla. As per the prosecution’s case, there was a financial dispute between Joshi and gutka businessman Rasiklal Dhariwal, as the latter owed him Rs 259 crore.
Joshi had then approached a relative to help settle the matter. Dhariwal settled the matter with the help of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim who he got in touch through his brother, Anees Ibrahim. In the settlement, Dhariwal paid Joshi only Rs 11 crore. As Dawood had helped the duo settle the issue, he took their help to set up gutka units in Karachi, Pakistan.
Special Judge BD Shelke ordered two persons to be compensated Rs 1.32 lakh each from the fine amount of each of the three convicts. These are partners from an export agency who were compelled by Ansari to buy gutka packaging machinery and also export it. The court noted that Joshi and Ansari had both undergone over four years in jail and the duration they spent as undertrials before they secured bail be deducted from their sentence.
