Please go through the following article written by Mr. Ashok Bahirwani (Secretary of the Speak Asia Panelist Association) over the court proceedings on 16th August, 2011.
With a sad heart I have to inform all of you that our beloved and inspirationl COO Mr. Tarak Bajpai has not been granted Bail today and the honourable Magistarte has now posted the matter for 18th August, 2011 for Orders. Speakasians this is the last of the bad news and will try and narrate herein below the entire proceedings as it unfolded today in court room # 19 at the Chief Magistrates Court at the Esplanade Court (Quila Court) Mumbai.
- Our Council Adv Ponda (Sr) started the proceedings and brought to the notice of the hon. Court that how ruling after ruling of various high courts and the Honourable Supreme court have opined and ruled that BAIL rather then JAIL should be the norm for natural Justice more specifically in matters where the maximum jail sentence in not more then 7 (Seven Years). In both the sections presently applied on SAOL i.e 406 & 420 the maximum sentence is 7 years.
- Senior Adv Ponda then went on to explain in detail the entire business module to the honourable magistarate. He explained how the panelists subscribe to the E zines which in turn trains the panelists to respond to the surveys sent out by SAOL. By properly filling these surveys the panelist gets an opportunity to earn Rs.500/- per survey. The Company has been regularly and promptly been paying all the panelists as per schedule including to the complainants.
- Senior Adv. Mr. Ponda went on to inform the court that with effect from early august the company has introduced an EXIT OPTION for all panelists who wish to exit from the company and the same EXIT OPTION is now also available to the complainant, who can, if the court wishes get the refund immediately.
- If complainants has paid almost Rs. 543000/- as his subscription charges for the various panels and subpanels he purchased, less the amonunt of Rs.160000/- that he has earned as RPs the balance if the court wishes the balance can be paid out to him immediately.
- Senior Adv Ponda further went on to say that it is pertinent to note here that this is a solitary complaint from a family of over 20 lakh panelists.
- At this point the Associations advocate Mr. Ahmad Abdi intervened and submitted to the court that save and except the one single complaint the remaining 20 lakh panelist were still with the company and were wanting to be allowed intervention and wished to be heard. He informed the Magistrate how not a single panelist wants to complain against the company. Advocate Mr. Ahmed went on to read one of the E mail received in support of SAOL and the Association, from one of that panelist as under:
Speak Asia is ready and willing to pay back its panelist the money due to them and also offer the Exit Option to those who want to leave.
Why are the authorities making it difficult for the company?
If their is a genuine concern for the panelist who have put their money in Speak asia the authorities should supervise the money pay back transactions so that the hard earned money of many several lakh panelists is paid back to them.
The people who have paid money to Speak asia are those from the middle class who wanted to supplement their incomes from home and to find an alternate source of income.
They have not joined with any criminal intentions. They have borrowed money and taken loans to pay so that they could earn additional income by doing extra work from home.
I feel the whole thing is just a victimization of Speak Asia by vested and corrupt interest.
Speak Asia is shouting from the roof tops that they want to pay back peoples money and give salaries to their employees, why are the authorities not listening.
The authorities should ensure that the people get their money back.
Please do not play politics for selfish interests at the cost of millions of poor people.
Regards
Ronald Correa.
- Advocate Abdi, went on to submit and inform before the Hon Magistarte that the panelist family had gone ahead and formed an ALL INDIA SPEAKASIA PANELIST ASSOCIATION in support of the company and to protect the interest of the 20 lakh panelists.
- Adv. Ponda then submitted finally that as the company is willing to pay the complainant and has already offered the EXIT OPTION to all the panelists and because both the sections under which the accused SAOL officials are charged i.e 406 and 420 are not prima facie maintainable it is rather fit that the accused officials of SAOL be granted bail.
- Mr. Ponda also submitted before the hon.court that offenses under both the sections are compoundable i.e. that the complainant if he so wishes can withdraw from the complaints if at a later date he wishes his perception was wrong.
The funniest part of the entire drama in the magistrates court was not even funny. All and all it shows the low standards of the public prosecution side (although in the present case it goes in our favor but on a larger case it shows the detioriation and the rot in our public mechanism.) Imagine the Public Prosecutor was hand writting her reply to the bail application while the matter was being argued. Imagine she was not hearing the arguments but was preparing her reply to the Bail application while here were 2 senior councils assisted by a battery of 5 legal assistants.
The Public Prosecutor came up with predictable arguments as her objection in against to SAOL, was as follows:
- That Bail should not be granted as the accused may flee the law.
- That there is a danger of the accused being able to tamper with the evidence and may influence the complainant.
- That the Accused meaning Mr. Tarak Bajpai has no residence in Maharashtra.
In reply to the above Adv. Abaad Ponda said that it is the fundamental right of every Indian to choose where he wishes to stay in the country and it can not be held against the person that he has no Residence in Maharashtra, in fact it is effecting my civil right and I vehemently oppose such insinuations.
Adv Ponda fiuther went on to submitt before the court that as the passports are already with the Authorities, so how can the Accused flee the country? On the next point Adv Ponda informed the court as to how various courts have now understood that this excuse of tampering of evidence, is fast becoming a norm in filing objections to all bail applications and this excuse is not against the accused, but is a sad commentary on the police that they can allow any accused to be able to tamper with the evidence or influence the complainant.
After hearing all the arguments from both the sides the court announced and posted the matter for ORDERS on 18th August, 2011. Our observations on this one day delay in the BAIL of our beloved Shri Tarakji. If the Magistrate had to reject the bail application he simply would have passed a one line ORDER saying bail aplication rejected NO BAIL ALLOWED.
The very fact that the Hon. Magistrate has taken one day to pronounce the Judgment we feel is in favor of SAOL as he will have to give a lengthy judgement giving reasons and a line of his thought as to why he is giving relief to an accused in such a high profile and controvercial case. Speakasians are going to file a PIL in the honourable Mumbai High court in support of SAOL.
Where are your E mails? In 2 days we have received only 10,000 Mails. WAKE UP! WE NEED ATLEST 1,00,000 E mails TO STAND IN COURT WITH OUR PIL. PLEASE SEND AS MANY E mails AS POSSIBLE to speakasia.association@gmail.com
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