Dentist’s ‘abduction’: Supreme Court stays HC order on probe against Chandigarh cops

The SC bench of justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli also sought, within two weeks, a response from Mohit Dhawan, the dentist on whose plea the high court had passed the order on March 3

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Punjab and Haryana high court order to register an FIR and set up an SIT to probe the alleged abduction of a dentist by Chandigarh Police personnel to prevent him from appearing in a court in January 2022.

The dentist was arrested by the Chandigarh Police on January 7, 2022, over 15 months after he was booked in September 2020 after a Nairobi woman accused him of cheating her when she visited India to get dental implants from his clinic in 2017-2018. (AP File Photo)

The bench of justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli also sought, within two weeks, a response from Mohit Dhawan, the dentist on whose plea the high court had passed the order on March 3.

He was arrested by the Chandigarh Police on January 7, 2022, over 15 months after he was booked in September 2020 after a Nairobi woman accused him of cheating her when she visited India to get dental implants from his clinic in 2017-2018.

“The case needs to be considered at length and that is why the court is directing the stay of the high court order,” justice Bopanna said.

The Supreme Court also directed the Chandigarh Police to retain and preserve all call details, CCTV footage and all electronic records in connection with the case existing till March 17. The matter has been ordered to be listed after five weeks.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for Dhawan, said it was one of the worst cases of police excesses he had seen. He said Dhawan had filed a suit for the recovery of some outstanding dues owed to him by a woman from Nairobi for her treatment. Due to this, the dentist was implicated in a series of complaints about improper treatment allegedly provided to the woman, he alleged.

“Three separate complaints were filed against him and in two of them he managed to get anticipatory bail. In the third one, he was asked to be present before a magistrate. But on the day of hearing, he was abducted by a team of Chandigarh crime branch police, while another team marked their appearance in court,” Bhushan said.