Mumbai Police's 'Lady Singham' accused of harassment, illegal detention

The petitioner with the writ petition documents. Pics/Satej Shinde

The relatives of a 48-year-old man, framed and arrested by DN Nagar police in connection with a POCSO case, are being threatened by a woman police sub-inspector (WPSI) to withdraw a criminal writ petition filed against her high-handedness and illegal detention of 41 hours.

A writ petition was filed by the cousin of the POCSO accused because the WPSI Anjali Wani, who loves to be called a lady Singham, started to harass relatives for using the Right to Information Act to prove the illegal detention and to put the law in motion. "WPSI Anjali Wani has been making WhatsApp calls to me and my relatives to mount pressure on us to change our advocate. She also recommended us an advocate and asked us to hand over all the case documents, to this advocate." said the petitioner.

"When we did not succumb to her pressure, she started threatening me and said she would ruin the lives of my family members," said the petitioner. "She told me that her batchmates in the police department will falsely implicate me in a complex case so that I rot in jail," said the petitioner. Even after the petitioner, who is the relative of the POCSO accused, submitted a written complaint at Virar police station against Wani, the cops have not registered an FIR to date.

‘Falsely implicated'

Speaking about the POCSO case against the accused, his cousin said, "He has been falsely implicated by the owner of a house where he had been staying on rent for the last six years in Andheri. The house owner had been asking him to vacate the room fearing it would be grabbed illegally by the tenant."

The accused's niece said, "The landlord used his underage daughter as a tool to falsely implicate him. Now he is imprisoned inside Arthur Road jail and we fear that his health might deteriorate."

"His one kidney has been removed after it developed cancer a few months ago. He needs special care. I don't know under what condition he has been living at present," she added.

‘Illegal detention'

The FIR under relevant sections of BNS and POCSO Act was registered against the tenant on September 15 at DN Nagar police station. After learning that a case has been registered against him, the tenant left for his hometown in Jaunpur district of Uttar Pradesh.

"After he reached near his village, he cut his own wrist with a blade and was found bleeding in an open field near the ancestral village. A local passerby identified and rushed him to a doctor or else he would have died," said a nephew of the POCSO accused. A police team led by WPSI Wani and the accused's relative boarded a flight from Mumbai on September 21 for Lucknow.

"The police team hired a cab from Lucknow airport to the accused's village. They reached a local police station, took an enforcement action and arrested him on October 21. Nearly 500 people including Pradhan from the nearby villages had gathered to witness this," said the nephew of the accused.

The accused's family members were told by the Mumbai police that he is being taken to Mumbai as he is wanted in a POCSO case. "He was supposed to be produced before the Dindoshi sessions court within 24 hours as per the law. But he was produced before the court on September 24 post lunch," said the petitioner.

"Why did the Mumbai police officers keep him in illegal detention for more than 41 hours? What stopped the DN Nagar police from producing him within 24 hours? This is nothing but the high-handedness of rogue police officials because their seniors fail to take strict departmental action against them," said the petitioner.

"We have enough evidence against Wani and her entire police team to prove the misuse of their official positions. It was the reason I have filed a criminal writ petition against them in the Bombay High Court," said the petitioner.

Advocate Narendra Dubey, the counsel for the petitioner, said, "The high court has directed the police to preserve the CCTV footage of September 22 from 1.30 pm to September 23, 2024, till 7 pm of all the entrances of the DN Nagar police station to submit on November 18."

When contacted, WPSI Wani said, "This is my personal number, stop calling me here. If you want to know anything, please speak to the DCP Dikshit Gedam."

The zonal Deputy Commissioner of Police Dikshit Gedam said, "The matter is sub-judice in the court. We will abide by the HC instructions." "For other issues (high-handedness), I have not received any complaint as such. If we receive any complaint from the complainant, we will take appropriate legal action," Gedam said.