E-Paper
Dentist’s arrest at ‘Chandigarh court’: HC asks sessions judge to produce CCTV footage of premises
While the dentist claims he was arrested from the Chandigarh District Court Complex, Sector 43, on the morning of January 7, UT police contend they arrested him from near the Sector-43 bus stand in the evening
The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Chandigarh district and sessions judge to produce the January 7 CCTV footage of District Courts Complex, Sector 43, from where a city-based dentist has alleged he was arrested, contrary to UT police’s claims.
The bench of justice Amol Rattan Singh also asked the UT senior superintendent of police (SSP) to provide the mobile phone details of the three police personnel who arrested the dentist, Mohit Dhawan.
The directions were given on January 13, during his anticipatory bail plea in a criminal case registered against him on September 21, 2020. In the said case, a Nairobi woman had accused the dentist of cheating her when she visited India to get dental implants from his clinic in 2017-2018.
The dentist has been claiming that he was being harassed at the behest of former Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) special director Rakesh Asthana and former Chandigarh DGP TS Luthra. His plea to transfer the probe in the cheating case was dismissed by the high court in November 2020.
Dhawan’s counsel had told the court that when, on the directions of the high court, his client went to the District Courts Complex at 10am on January 7 and got an affidavit notarised to show his presence in the cheating case, he was arrested by police before he could appear before a magistrate.
However, UT’s counsel contended that Dhawan was arrested in connection with another FIR registered against him.
While Dhawan claimed he was arrested from the court complex in the morning, the UT counsel said his arrest took place at 6.30pm and from behind the Sector-43 ISBT, not the court complex.
The counsel also argued that if the petitioner had already got his affidavit notarised, why was it not produced before the magistrate or on January 8, when he was produced before the court upon his arrest.
Taking serious view of the circumstances surrounding the dentist’s arrest, the court directed the sessions judge to preserve CCTV footage of all cameras installed outside the court from between 10am and 11.30am on January 7 and produce it on the next date of hearing.
The court also sought names of the cops who arrested the dentist, following which names of crime branch inspector Harinder Singh Sekhon, sub-inspector Suresh Kumar and senior constable Neeraj were provided by the police.
On this, the court directed that their call and mobile phone location details between 5pm and 8pm, and 10am and 11.30am on January 7, along with the call records of Dhawan, be obtained and produced before the court. The matter will now be taken up on January 27.
