Do course on crimes against women: Bombay High Court to cop protecting rape-accused politician

Photo for representational purpose

The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court recently directed the police commissioner of Aurangabad to ensure that an ACP from the city undergoes a sensitisation course on crimes against women before he could be given duty to probe such cases in future.

This comes after the court observed that the officer was found to be deviating from his duties under the influence of an accused politician and harassed the survivor, instead of taking appropriate action against him, stated a report in The Indian Express.

A division bench of Justices Ravindra Ghuge and Bhalchandra U Debadwar on April 7 passed the order on a plea made by the victim, seeking directions to ACP Nishikant Bhujbal to arrest the accused, who belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), as per the FIR lodged by her last year.

Senior advocate Rajendra Deshmukh, appearing for the victim, said the politician had sexually assaulted her on November 14, 2020. Even though the victim was threatened with murder by the politician, a delayed FIR was filed on December 26, 2020. Bhujbal was appointed as the investigating officer (IO) on December 31, 2020.

The senior advocate said that Bhujbal did not take the accused into custody as he was a high-profile politician. "The accused's confidence that the IO would not arrest him is indicated from the fact that despite a heinous crime alleged to have been committed by him, he did not opt for anticipatory bail," he said.

He added that the IO had tried to cover up the case by filing a B-summary (final) report without proper investigation. "The victim was consistently summoned for investigation/interrogation and harassed, whereas, the accused is roaming free," Deshmukh said.

Chief Public Prosecutor D R Kale opposed the plea and said the closure report was filed after due investigation and as the accused is a politician, the possibility of his implication to destroy his political career cannot be ruled out.

The bench said, "We do not find a single convincing reason as to why the IO, while conducting investigation into a heinous offence punishable under Section 376 of the IPC, refrained from arresting the accused."

"This shows, either his (IO) insensitivity to the offences committed against women, or he was manipulated by the accused. We have every reason to be astonished with this conduct of the IO," added the bench.

"Bhujbal needs to undergo a sensitisation course/program on crimes against women before he could be entrusted with the responsibility of investigating crimes against women," it told the Aurangabad CP.

Disposing of the plea, the court directed the magistrate to decide the victim's protest petition against B-summary report within four weeks from date of filing of the plea.