Retired cop moves HC

Retired top cop Hasan Gafoor on Thursday approached the Bombay high court seeking quashing of summons issued to him by a magistrate in Chandigarh. Gafoor has been summoned to be present in the magistrate’s court at Chandigarh on March 15 on a complaint filed by Hoshiar Singh, father of inspector general of police Param Bir Singh in March 2010.

Retired top cop Hasan Gafoor on Thursday approached the Bombay high court seeking quashing of summons issued to him by a magistrate in Chandigarh. Gafoor has been summoned to be present in the magistrate’s court at Chandigarh on March 15 on a complaint filed by Hoshiar Singh, father of inspector general of police Param Bir Singh in March 2010.

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Gafoor had retired as director general of police (anti corruption bureau) in December 2010. In November 2009, a year after 10 Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba operatives wrecked terror in the city, Gafoor’s interview had appeared in a weekly magazine, wherein he [Gafoor] had allegedly said that “a section of senior police officers refused to be on the ground and take on the terrorists. By doing so, they chose to ignore the need of the hour”. Singh claimed that the statements made by Gafoor, who was then commissioner of police, were defamatory against his family.

On Thursday, Gafoor’s counsel, Rafiq Dada, argued that this was prosecution of a retired officer who has to go to Chandigarh to defend himself. Dada argued that the magazine had misquoted his client.

But Singh’s advocates, Prakash Naik and Subodh Desai, opposed Gafoor’s petition saying that this (Mumbai) court did not have the jurisdiction because the summons was issued by the court in Chandigarh.

A division bench of justice BH Marlapalle and justice UD Salvi has kept Gafoor’s petition for hearing on Friday.