Court issues a bailable warrant against IO for missing deposition

A special court, on Tuesday, issued a bailable warrant against an investigating officer for not appearing before it for deposition in a case in which a priest Johnson Lawrence is accused of sodomizing a teenage boy of his parish.

Special judge under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) Rekha N Pandhare was displeased, as he was to be examined at 11am on Tuesday. The court noted that from 11am to 1pm, no information about the witnesses was given to the court and no one was present from Shivaji Nagar police station, where the case is registered, till personally called by the court. It directed that the senior police inspector of Shivaji Nagar police station be present on the next day personally with the witnesses.