Accused alleges illegal detention; court asks for CCTV footage of police station
A sessions court has directed the prosecution to produce the CCTV footage and certified copies of police station registers of the MIDC police station in the gangster Sandeep Gadoli fake encounter case after an accused in the case alleged that she had been illegally detained for 15 days in February 2016 by the police.
Divya Pahuja, girlfriend of deceased Gadoli and an accused in the case, through her advocate Sana Raees Khan had said in her plea that she had been illegally detained between 7 February 2016 and 22 February 2016 at the MIDC police station. As a person arrested cannot be detained for more than 24 hours and must be produced before a magistrate, Khan told the court that the illegal detention infringed on one’s right to personal liberty guaranteed under the constitution. Di
vya, then 19, was shown to be arrested formally only on July 14 that year in the case by the police.
Khan sought that the MIDC police station’s records such as the CCTV footage, station diary, general diary and lock-up register be produced before the court. The court on Monday directed the prosecution to produce these records on 8 October before it.
Divya’s mother Sonia Pahuja, also a co-accused in the case, had filed an interim bail plea on medical grounds of suffering from TB. The court on Monday directed the prosecution to get Sonia Pahuja examined through a doctor of the T.B. department of J.J.Hospital and submit the medical report by the next date positively. Failing this, the court said it will decide the matter considering the documents on record.
Gadoli, a Gurgaon-based gangster with 41 cases against him, had been killed in an alleged fake encounter on 7 February 2016 by the Gurgaon police. He was staying at Hotel Airport Metro when Gurgaon police claimed that when they entered his room having traced him across states, he fired at them and they fired in self-defense. They claimed he was alone in the hotel room. The Mumbai police however claimed that Divya Pahuja was present in the hotel room when the incident took place. Five Gurgaon policemen including sub-inspector Pradyuman Yadav were arrested for the fake encounter.