DNA report puts cop in the dock

Article leads to accused slapping contempt on PI

An accused in a dowry case, Shabbirsingh Triloksingh Anand, on Tuesday charged a senior inspector of MIDC police station with ‘contempt of court’.

Additional Sessions Judge Chitra K Bhedi has granted the police time till Wednesday to file their reply in the contempt application.

Charanjit Kaur, who married Shabbir in 2001, had complained to the police of harassment for a dowry of Rs10 lakh by her husband Shabbir, his mother Kuldeepkaur and wife Ranjitkaur. when the accused filed an anticipatory bail plea in May 2007, the police informed the then presiding judge BM Jethani that Charanjit’s complaint was not yet registered and, therefore, the bail plea was premature.

Hence, on May 24, Judge Jethani ordered that should the complaint be registered and if Shabbir and his family made accused, the police must give them 72-hour notice of their intention to arrest.

Shabbir alleges in his contempt notice that his family/he never thereafter heard from the police. In fact, the family only learnt on July 10, through an article in the DNA, that in a complaint filed by Charanjit, ‘…police were on the lookout for Manjit (Shabbir’s brother), Kuldeep and Ranjitkaur’.

The family filed for an anticipatory bail. The court gave oral directions to the police on July 16, to give the accused 72 hours before de facto arrest.

“The MIDC police instead pasted an antedated notice on Kuldeep’s door, declaring us as wanted accused i.e. absconding from the law,” complained Shabbir in his contempt notice.

“Moreover, the police have deliberately ignored the sessions court’s directions of giving us a notice before arrest. Instead they declared us absconders and took action accordingly,” said Shabbir.