Bombay High Court Slams Mumbai Police For Allegedly "Illegally Detaining, Stripping" Teacher In Bailable Offence

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday was livid at the "highhandedness" of Mumbai police officials who allegedly illegally detained a music teacher for a day and stripped him naked in the lock up to humiliate him.

The teacher, sobbing uncontrollably in court alongside his wife, submitted an affidavit narrating his ordeal and contended he was wrongly accused of stalking his student, a statement he could substantiate with voice recordings.

A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Gauri Godse directed the Deputy Commissioner of Police Akbar Pathan to retrieve the CCTV footage from Tardeo Police Station and Saat Rasta lock-up. The court also sought the State’s response to the fresh affidavits.

“This is absolutely gross. We are telling you we will impose cost and order compensation,” Justice Dere observed after hearing the couple’s lawyer.

“Your PI threatens the advocate that a false case will be registered?,” the judge added.

She further noted that the teacher was released the moment the High Court took cognizance of his wife’s habeas corpus petition.

“Had we not granted production you wouldn't have released him. You filed an FIR but didn’t submit a copy to the [magistrate’s] court as mandated by law. The tenor of your affidavit is such that you are justifying the detention,” Justice Dere lambasted the police.

Advocate Kripashankar Pandey along with Darshan Juikar submitted that his client was stripped naked in the lock up. He narrated how he was asked for his ID after a certain exchange of words and obstructed from exiting the police station.

The court said that in the present case the petitioners had the means to approach the High Court and wondered what happens to those who could not afford to come to court.

“If someone else doesn't have the means? The highhandedness is tremendous. This is extremely serious, we will not accept the unconditional apology and take it to the logical end. In a case of bailable offence, what is the procedure to be followed? Are you allowed to detain him overnight?” the Court asked.

The court accordingly took the teacher’s affidavit and the police officer’s ‘unconditional apology’ on record, and ordered the CCTV footage to be saved.

The petitioner’ lawyer also told the court that his client was threatened with externment proceedings, however the officer denied this allegation.

“If we find your officer is lying, we will order a departmental enquiry,” the court said before it adjourned the matter by two weeks.

In the detailed affidavit, the teacher said he was called to Malad police station and Tardeo police station eight times since last month. He was made to wait at the police station for seven to twelve hours on some occasions.

The first call came from Malad police station on June 19, 2023, saying they had received a complaint from his student that he had spoken indecently with her and increased fees from Rs. 2,500 to Rs. 3,500.

The teacher claimed he or his lawyers had no idea why the matter was transferred from Malad police station to Tardeo police station. Only recently they learned he was booked under section 354A of the IPC.

Anyhow, during this time he claims to have met Inspector Vivek Shende with evidence against the complainant.

“I said I have a recording in Informant’s voice where she is apologising for her physical advancements and is trying to offer huge amounts of money to me,” the affidavit reads.

Instead, he was handed a notice under section 41A of the CrPC.

On one hand the police weren’t co-operating with us one bit and on the other side they were influencing us, almost threatening us, to not engage a lawyer, he said.

The teacher mentioned an instance in the affidavit where Inspector Sachin Avad allegedly sought a bribe and another occasion where in he was allegedly lambasted for leaving town to watch his daughter perform on stage in Bangalore.

However, he narrated in thread bare detail the night of July 17, when he was called to the police station, put in the lockup and stripped naked, only to be released the following day when the court took cognisance of his wife’s petition.

The matter will now be heard after two weeks.