Court moved against ADG for contempt
A day after the Bombay High Court questioned the Maharashtra Police for flaunting ‘crucial evidence’ before the media over the arrests of human rights activists, a Pune-based activist has moved court seeking action against the senior officers, who briefed the press.
Senior IPS officer Parambir Singh, who is also the Additional Director General (Law and Order) of Maharashtra, had, along with some officers of Pune Police, addressed a press conference on September 1.
In this press meet, Singh had displayed ‘thousands’ of letters, which he claimed were ‘conclusive’ links of the arrested human rights activists with Maoists.
A bench of Justices Sambhaji Shinde and Mridula Bhatkar was on Monday surprised over this ‘unusual’ press meet and sought an
explanation from the Maharashtra police, since the matter was already pending before the Supreme Court of India.
Subsequently, Sanjay Bhalerao has filed a Criminal Public Interest Litigation (CRPIL) through advocate Nitin Satpute.
In his plea, Bhalerao has contended, Singh and the other officers have breached the March 2018 orders of a magistrate court. The magistrate had, in March, considered the plea of Pune Police, which sought permission to raid the houses of some suspects in the case. The police had sought in-camera proceedings, as the cops apprehended that any information, if divulged, would help the suspects and they were likely to tamper with the evidence.
“The officers who were involved in the press conference have disclosed crucial information about the investigation and acted against orders of the Magistrate. The officers have committed an illegal act and have directly helped the real culprits and accused persons, by disclosing details of the investigation in the press conference,” the plea reads.
The petition states that the arrests of all the activists are nothing but ‘politically motivated.’
“It is unfortunate that the Pune city police investigating the alleged crime is politically motivated and not working fairly but with a mala fide intention best known to them and arresting intellectual persons of society, who are social rights activists, advocates, human rights activists, poets, writers and other respectable persons of the society,” the petition states.
“The police are intentionally trying to connect the alleged crime against these activists with the Bhima-Koregaon incident, for which several FIRs have been filed against accused Sambhaji Bhide and Milind Ekbote. In the Bhima-Koregaon matter, the Pune rural police itself had registered an FIR against Ekbote and had also arrested him,” the petition reads.
The plea has accordingly sought action against Singh and other officers of Pune Police under the Contempt of Courts Act.