The Mumbai police have issued a notice to a constable and an inspector for their role in a fake letter, alleging sexual harassment of female police officers in the Nagpada Motor Transport (MT) department. The police had launched a probe after the letter went viral in January.
Sources in the police said a chargesheet will be filed within a week of receiving the forensic analysis report of signatures of women police officers in the letter.
The constable who allegedly typed the letter has been identified as DK Jadhav. He is also said to have circulated the letter on social media using a family member’s mobile phone under instructions from police inspector Shivanandan Jarli. To type the matter, a woman constable and Jadhav used a computer in the MT department; it was typed in the presence of an inspector rank officer.
Jadhav then handed it over to one of his family members and asked him to go to Dadar post office and drop it in the post box. Notably, there are no CCTV cameras installed at Dadar post office. The letter was thereafter circulated on social media, said the officer close to the investigation.
The crime branch questioned Jadhav and his family members and Jarli, besides 17 others. A total of 19 statements have been recorded in the case, with statements of four persons recorded before the magistrate under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The police have registered an FIR under Indian Penal Code sections 465 (punishment for forgery), 500 (punishment for defamation), 509 (if someone intentionally tries to insult a woman’s modesty by using offensive words, gestures, or actions, or intrudes on her privacy) and the IT Act section that attracts punishment for publishing or transmitting of material containing sexually explicit act.
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