‘No complaints against police’

ONE OF CHINTAN’S FRIENDS SAID, “THE POLICE ARE FRAMING HIM AS THEY CANNOT SOLVE THE CASE (BY FINDING RAJBHAR).”

Mumbai: Artist Chintan Upadhyay told the Borivli metropolitan court on Thursday that he has no complaints about his treatment by the police, just days after his lawyer alleged that he had been tortured in custody.

Chintan’s friends stood outside as he was brought to the court, his head covered with a black sheath. The policemen escorting him were careful to not pause midway and give the friends a chance to talk to him.

Inside the court magistrate P Kulkarni asked him, “Do you have any complaints against the police?” “No,” Chintan replied, almost inaudibly.

Minutes later, his lawyer requested the court to let Chintan speak about his health. The court allowed this, and Chintan said, “I have severe back pain.”

At this point, the elderly brother of murdered lawyer Haresh Bhambani, who had been observing the proceedings silently from the back row, stood up. “Sir, I have to say something,” he told the judge. Without waiting for a response, he continued, in a shaking voice, “My brother had back pain too. Why was he killed?” He then broke into tears, leaning against a wall of the cramped courtroom.

Afterwards, he said outside the court, “Advocates are not safe in this country. Honest lawyers who fight for their clients are being killed.”

One of Chintan’s friends said, “The police are framing him as they cannot solve the case (by finding key suspect Vidhyadhar Rajbhar). They first said he had a meeting with the accused on December 9, but we proved he was with a Hungarian artist at the time.”