The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has ordered the Aurangabad Police commissioner to ensure that an assistant commissioner of police (ACP) from the city undergoes a sensitisation course on crimes against women.
A division bench of Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Bhalchandra U Debadwar was hearing a petition filed by a sexual assault victim, seeking directions to ACP Nishikant Bhujbal to arrest the accused, who is a leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
According to the FIR, the politician had sexually assaulted the woman on November 14, 2020, and threatened her with dire consequences. The FIR was registered on December 26, 2020. Bhujbal was appointed as the investigating officer (IO) on December 31, 2020.
Appearing for the victim, advocate Rajendra Deshmukh told the court that Bhujbal did not take any steps to arrest the accused as he was a high-profile politician.
“The level of confidence of the accused that the IO would not dare to touch him is indicated from the fact that despite a heinous crime alleged to have been committed by him, he did not opt for anticipatory bail. He was absolutely sure that the police machinery would not touch him,” Deshmukh said.
Deshmukh said the ACP had tried to cover up the case by filing a B-summary report without proper investigation. A B-summary report is one where the police classifies the case as maliciously false or when there is no evidence or prima facie case against the accused after investigation.
“The victim is unmarried. Yet, the IO claims that she is married and divorced. It is the victim who has been consistently summoned for investigation/interrogation and harassed. The accused is roaming free,” he said.
Public Prosecutor DR Kale opposed the submissions and said the closure report was filed after due investigation. He said since the accused was a politician, the possibility of his implication in the incident to destroy his political career cannot be ruled out.
“We do not find a single convincing and plausible reason as to why the IO, while conducting investigation into a heinous offence punishable under Section 376 of the IPC, refrained from arresting the accused. We find that the IO did not have the courage to touch the accused,” the bench said.
Expressing astonishment at the conduct of the investigating officer, the bench said, “We would, therefore, be justified in directing the Commissioner of Police, Aurangabad, that the said IO Bhujbal needs to undergo a sensitisation course/program with regard to crimes against women before he could be entrusted with the responsibility of investigating crimes against women.”
READ | Bombay high court quashes FIR against former judge’s son
Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/bombay-high-court-acp-course-on-crimes-against-women-1790003-2021-04-12
