Mumbai: Stringent charge against woman who hit cop – Times of India

Mumbai: Ten months after a woman and her friend were booked and arrested for assaulting a traffic constable, a charge-sheet was submitted against them, invoking the stringent charge of using criminal force to prevent a public servant from performing his duty. Following an amendment, the charge under Indian Penal Code now attracts a maximum sentence of five years’ rigorous imprisonment, instead of two.
Among witnesses cited by police were the people who had gathered at the spot at the time of the incident.
The case was recently committed to the sessions court, where the trial will be conducted.
Sagarika Tiwari (29) and Mohsin Khan (32) were arrested on October 23, 2020, for allegedly assaulting the constable in south Mumbai. Constable Eknath Porte, attached to Kalbadevi traffic division, was on duty at Surti Hotel junction in Kalbadevi when he stopped biker Shaikh and Tiwari was a pillion rider. Porte told Shaikh to pay a fine as he was not wearing a helmet, which led to an argument. A video of her beating the constable had gone viral on social media.
The accused were also booked for charges relating to voluntarily causing hurt, intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal intimidation.
The duo was granted bail by a magistrate’s court on October 26. Police moved the sessions court, seeking cancellation of bail. The court rejected the police plea in November.
The sessions court had held that liberty of a person should not be dealt with lightly. “Denying bail or cancelling bail of an accused would amount to pretrial conviction,” the court had said.
The court said bail can be cancelled only if circumstances such as tampering of evidence, threatening of witnesses, likeliness to abscond, exist. “It cannot be said that the magistrate has exercised discretion, arbitrary or illegally,” the sessions court said.