Mumbai: Police watchdog bins assault plaint against senior cop by RTI applicant
The SPCA binned Kailash Govind Avhad's complaint that former Thane DCP (Traffic) Sandeep Palve hit him during an appeal hearing, yet no case was registered against him.
A panel that hears citizens' grievances about the police has dismissed an RTI applicant's plaint against a deputy police commissioner who had assaulted him.The State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA) binned Kailash Govind Avhad's complaint that former Thane DCP (Traffic) Sandeep Palve hit him during an appeal hearing, yet no case was registered against him.The appeal was dismissed on the grounds that Avhad's medical report was not definitive and that he was interested in "publicity".DNA had reported the case on January 28, 2018, when former state information commissioner Thanksy Thekkekara had ordered an enquiry into the assault. She had directed the Thane police commissioner and the home department that the DCP be stripped of his first appellate authority functions till the time enquiry was complete.Avhad had sought details of the doctorate degree of a DCP before Palve. When he did not get the information, he filed his first appeal before Palve. Avhad alleged that Palve got angry on hearing the information sought and repeatedly hit him during the first appeal hearing on 23 February, 2017.But Avhad alleged that no enquiry was conducted till he filed an RTI plea asking about it. When the enquiry started, he alleged, it was closed without him being called formally for it.So he filed a complaint with the SPCA in February 2018, asking why no FIR had been filed in the assault case and seeking action.But the authority said that Avhad had not provided any valid medical records to prove he suffered 30% hearing loss in his left ear due to the alleged assault. It stated that the report Avhad gave from VS Government General Hospital, Thane after the assault was from an audiometry technician and not by a specialist.