India, May 22 -- Criminal proceedings initiated against former Mumbai police commissioner Sanjay Pandey and others at the behest of businessman Sanjay Punamiya were "manifestly attended with mala fides and amounted to an abuse of the process of law," the Bombay high court pronounced on Wednesday.

According to the order made available online on Thursday, the court quashed two first information reports (FIRs) registered at Thane Nagar and Colaba police stations in 2024 against the former Mumbai police commissioner and others, saying Punamiya's complaints were an "outcome of a desperate and vengeful mind", seeking "a fishing inquiry" into a matter which did not require any inquiry at all.

The division bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrash...