A magistrate court that acquitted MLA Ramesh Kadam last week in a 2017 case for using foul language on escort policemen outside Byculla jail, has said that it cannot rule out the possibility that the complainant policeman could have created and edited the video clip in which Kadam is seen using abusive language.
The video of the incident had gone viral at the time. As per the complaint filed by Manoj Pawar at the Nagpada police station, he was head of the escort party that was to take Kadam to JJ hospital from Byculla prison where he was lodged.
According to the police, Kadam had started quarrelling with him when he asked him not to walk ahead of the escort team. The cop further stated that the MLA told five to six persons who had come to meet him, to file a false case against Pawar for demanding a bribe of Rs. 25,000.
Metropolitan Magistrate PI Mokashi of the Sewree magistrate court said in his judgment, that the most important fact is that the policeman failed to lodge the FIR soon after the incident and instead he did it after 32 hours of the incident. “Thereby, it creates doubt that the FIR is an afterthought, which does not rule out the possibility that the informant must have created and edited the video clip…” magistrate Mokashi stated.
The court further pointed out that the delay column in the FIR is kept blank and that there is no explanation coming forth from any of the prosecution witnesses for the delay caused.
“There is no whisper about the same in the evidence adduced by the informant or the investigating officer, which proves fatal to the prosecution case,” it stated. Hence, the case of the prosecution, the court said, cannot stand on its own footing.
