Court orders case against Brahmapuri police officer for beating bus driver

A bus driver in Brahmapuri was abused and severely beaten by a man in plain clothes who later turned out to be the local station house officer, according to a case that has now come to light. Police circles were shaken after a court ordered that a criminal case be registered in the matter.

The incident took place on November 26, 2023. Mohan Shalikram Adivkar, a travels driver from Nagpur, was on his usual route from Gadchiroli to Nagpur with passengers. Around 3:30 pm, a long queue of vehicles had formed at the Brahmapuri railway crossing, which was closed. As the gate opened and vehicles began moving slowly, a sky-blue Innova (registration MH-29-AR-8855) came speeding on the wrong side. A man in plain clothes got out of the vehicle and, abusing driver Mohan Adivkar, signalled him to stop. Because of the heavy crowd, Adivkar only said, "Why should I stop?", at which the man got angry and left.

But the matter did not end there. When the bus reached the Christanand Hospital square further ahead, the same man was already standing there. As Mohan was getting off the bus, the man rushed at him and began beating him with kicks and punches. Not only that, he snatched the baton of traffic police constable Feroz Pathan, who was standing nearby, and struck Mohan repeatedly on his legs and head. The beating was so severe that blood began flowing from Mohan's head. It later emerged that the assailant was none other than Sudhakar Ambhore, the station house officer of Brahmapuri. Mohan, who had suffered a serious head injury, pleaded to be taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, but Ambhore made the passengers get off the bus and forced Mohan to drive the bus to the police station himself while still bleeding.

At the police station, a breath test taken on suspicion of drinking came back negative. A traffic policeman forcibly took Mohan's phone, deleted the recording and photographs of the incident, and removed the lock code. When he was taken to a private centre for treatment, the driver himself had to pay 2,500 rupees for a CT scan.

Frightened after the entire episode, Mohan went to the Brahmapuri police station that night to file a complaint. But police sub-inspectors Sanghamitra Bamble and Prashant Khobragade, who were on duty there, refused to accept a written complaint in order to protect their senior officer, Ambhore. Mohan eventually approached the sub-divisional police officer as well as former ministers Vijay Wadettiwar and Sudhir Mungantiwar. A striking detail also emerged in the case: there was talk in the area that the Innova in which Ambhore had chased the driver that day belonged to a known matka gambling operator from Wani in Yavatmal district.

After the police administration tried to shield its own officer, the affected driver approached the court through a lawyer. The First Class Judicial Magistrate, Brahmapuri, took serious note of the application and allowed it under Criminal Application No. 28/2024. The court has ordered a thorough investigation and registration of a case against then station house officer Sudhakar Ambhore under Sections 294, 324, 341 and 504 of the Indian Penal Code and Section 145(2) of the Maharashtra Police Act, 1951, under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).