Excise officials face court ire over abduction, torture
A city court has issued summons to Director General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) officials for kidnapping and extorting a confession from a trader, reports Sumit Saxena.
A city court has issued summons to Director General of Central Excise Intelligence (DGCEI) officials for kidnapping and extorting a confession from a trader.
The trader along with another co-accused had stripped in a packed courtroom to show torture marks. HT reported the matter on November 16.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Ajay Pandey said, “In short, he was abducted with intent, secretly and wrongfully to confine him, to extract a confession”.
Vinay Kanodia and Siddharath Dixit, traders by profession, had stripped in the court of, and pleaded before the judge to save them from the merciless torture of DGCEI officials. The judge took note of their injury marks and ordered an immediate medical examination.
The medical examination report confirmed torture.
In an application, Kanodia’s counsel Rajesh Anand alleged that he was forcibly lifted without any arrest or other legal proceedings. “He was filmed naked and tortured brutally, prominent from his injury marks,” Anand submitted in the court.
The court observed the video footage taken from the hotel from where Kanodia was forcibly lifted by the DGCEI officials.
The court noted that DGCEI officials conspired to trap Kanodia, to extract confession, and also produced incorrect documents to conceal the facts regarding his wrongful confinement.
The court dismissed the contention of the DGCEI counsel, who denied the allegations leveled in the application.