E-Paper
Chandigarh: 4 acquitted as police claims of assault during drive fall flat
The Chandigarh police, in their complaint, had said that the incident happened on February 23, 2020, while Chandigarh MC sub-inspector Parveen Kumar was issuing challans to illegal vendors. They claimed that the four accused started abusing them. Head constable Vijay Kumar alleged the accused tore off his uniform while constable Deepak claimed they snatched his phone. Police later registered an FIR.
A local court has acquitted four, including three women, of charges of assaulting cops who were on duty at Shastri Market in Sector 22 in 2020 during a drive against illegal vendors.
While the drive had been carried out by the municipal corporation (MC), its officials hadn’t supported the police version.
The police, in their complaint, had said that the incident happened on February 23, 2020, while Chandigarh MC sub-inspector Parveen Kumar was issuing challans to illegal vendors. They claimed that the four accused, including Reena, 35, Poonam, 33, Ricky, 35, all of Dadumajara Colony and Arti, 26, of Bapu Dham Colony started abusing them. Head constable Vijay Kumar alleged the accused tore off his uniform while constable Deepak claimed they snatched his phone. Police later registered an FIR.
The accused claimed they were being implicated and opted for trial. They said that on the contrary, police had been extorting money from the vendors and threatening them by issuing challans and seizing their merchandise. They also alleged that false evidence was created as per the suitability of the case.
The prosecution examined 13 witnesses. This included the MC sub-inspector who stated that he had come to know that some quarrel had taken place between police and vendors and thereafter, gone to the spot and found that accused Reena and other vendors present in the court were abusing police officials and mishandling them. He claimed no quarrel had taken place with him and resiled from his earlier statement given to the police. He even denied making this statement during cross-examination.
Defence counsel Yadvinder Singh Sandhu argued that no challan was issued to any vendor and many CCTV cameras were installed at the point of occurrence but their footage was not taken. He argued that the MC official didn’t support the prosecution’s version and no mobile phone was recovered from the accused. He claimed that the police had done the paperwork as per suitability of the prosecution’s version from the police station itself.
The court of additional sessions judge Jaibir Singh observed that there were discrepancies in where the mobile phone was allegedly snatched. The name plate of the cop who alleged his uniform had been torn was also found missing from the uniform taken in possession. The court also observed that CCTV footage was not collected and no independent witness joined the investigation despite a crowd forming there.
The court also observed there is doubt regarding the story of arrest of the three women it was concocted that they were arrested on the basis of a secret information while the arrest memos reflect they were arrested near the beat box. Ricky’s arrest also seemed doubtful to the court.
The court while observing pictures taken by the police photographer further observed, “A cloth bundle in open condition containing lipstick and nail-polish bottles is seen in the police beat box whereas it is not the case of any of the prosecution witnesses that these articles were seized by them. Meaning thereby, the prosecution witnesses have suppressed something from the court,” and acquitted the four.
