Bombay high court quashes assault charge, directs youths to do community service

The Bombay high court on Friday quashed a criminal complaint against four youths on the condition that they do community service at Arthur Road prison by assisting under trials draft their bail applications.

Yadyen Gaikwad, Umesh Patil, Ruchit Darji, and Mittul Rewal have also been directed to donate Rs 2,000 each to the Tata Cancer Research Foundation. The accused will be doing the community service at the prison with the help of a law intern over a period of four weeks on weekends.

A division bench of Justice V M Kanade and Justice P D Kode, while quashing the complaint said "They (accused) should get a peek into the life of persons on the other side of law. They have to develop a feeling of brotherhood and hopefully this would soothe their aggressive temperament."

The four accused, aged between 18 and 24, were arrested on October 21, 2010, after a complaint was lodged with the MHB police by a man called Rohit Shirodkar. The complaint said that the four friends were standing opposite Vijay Nagar school when Gaikwad had an altercation with one Rakesh Gujjar. Shirodkar had intervened and stopped the fight, after which everyone left the spot.

Shirodkar returned to the spot to search for his gold chain which he thought had fallen off during the altercation. The four accused then came from behind with bamboo sticks and attacked him. He suffered injuries on his elbow and head. He was moved to a nearby hospital and after medical care, lodged a complaint with the police.

The four accused were arrested on October 29, 2010, under section 324 (grievous hurt) 323 (simple hurt) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. The accused were produced before the magistrate who granted them bail the same day.

In their petition before the high court filed through their advocate Suresh Shetty, they mentioned that since the complainant and the accused were friends, the issue had been resolved among them. Moreover, quashing of the complainant will meet the ends of justice, it said. The bench agreed to quash the complaint provided they offered to do community service.