A sessions court on Wednesday acquitted two men in an eight-year-old case wherein they were accused of assaulting two policemen. The court stated in its judgment that the prosecution case is suspicious and shows previous enmity.
The incident allegedly took place in Byculla police station. The duo, Gopal Pande and Nurul Shaikh, had gone to the police station to lodge an FIR against Aangan Bar employees, who they complained had beaten them up. Pande also had an eye injury. The complaint states they started abusing when the sub-inspector asked him to go to the hospital in a police van for the injury. One of them caught hold of the collar of the complainant and kicked him in his stomach. The other slapped a constable.
The court pointed out that there are serious allegations that both accused were in an inebriated state. It said that it was the bounden duty of the prosecution to take alcohol tests of both the accused, but no pain was taken to get their medical examination. It said this makes the prosecution case suspicious.
Ad-hoc additional sessions judge UJ More further noted that no action was taken against the employees of the bar against whom the accused had approached with complaint. This was despite the eye injury one of the accused had suffered, about which even the complainant and the probe officer had admitted in their testimony. The court observed that the investigating officer had admitted that he knew the two men as they were running a bar in the neighbourhood and said it shows previous enmity.
The court also observed that the evidence of the complainant and the constable does not reveal the exact words used as expletives, again making the prosecution case suspicious. While acquitting the duo, the court added that the prosecution has not examined any other independent witnesses who were present at the time of the incident.
