HC pulls up Thane Police for seeking time to probe case against civic commissioner

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday pulled up the Thane police for their sloppy investigations in a complaint filed by an activist against Thane Municipal Commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal.

The HC slammed the civic officials for first giving a clean chit to Jaiswal and then seeking more time to probe further and accordingly, the court asked the Commissioner of Police, Thane to personally look into the matter.

The Commissioner was put under scanner for an alleged road repair scam in Thane, after a petition was filed based on a Right To Information (RTI) query filed by activist Pradeep Patil. The police after conducting a ‘thorough’ probe into the allegations of Patil, had given a clean chit to Jaiswal, however, on Tuesday sought time to further probe the case.

This time, the police sought time from the division bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Riyaz Chagla, to probe the new allegations of Patil, wherein he has claimed that he was ‘threatened’ by Jaiswal for filing the road scam case.

Irked over the approach of the police, the bench said, “We are unable to understand as to what the investigating officer is up to. First he gave a clean chit and now seeks more time. We have no faith in this officer now and we are of the opinion that the Commissioner of Police, Thane, should personally look into the matter.”

It may be noted that Patil had filed a complaint with the Thane police alleging that Jaiswal had called him over his official bungalow and then threatened him. The activist has claimed that Jaiswal pulled him up for filing the road scam case.

However, the Thane civic body has trashed such allegations and has maintained that the activist never visited Jaiswal’s official bungalow.

Municipal chief Sanjeev Jaiswal was put under scanner for an alleged road repair scam in Thane, after a petition was filed based on a RTI query filed by an activist. The police after conducting a ‘thorough’ probe into the allegations, had given a clean chit to Jaiswal, however, on Tuesday sought time to further probe the case.