Palghar assault case: High Court slams police for letting accused flee

Shiv Sainiks from the Shinde faction allegedly assaulted staff at a private hospital in Palghar while actor Govinda was being treated there. Delay and negligence in the police investigation allowed the accused to flee. On Wednesday, the High Court said plainly that Palghar police themselves had given the accused a chance to escape.

A bench of Justice Ajay Gadkari and Justice Kamal Khata said this was a very serious matter. Despite an attack on medical staff at a hospital, the police had not conducted a proper investigation, and this could not be accepted. The court also said Palghar police had learnt no lesson from the earlier case in which Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre of the Shinde faction had assaulted doctors at Dombivli Municipal Hospital.

The court noted it had taken suo motu cognizance of the Thane district case. It asked whether a fresh petition would now have to be filed for Palghar district as well, and whether the Thane incident had not been enough of a lesson for the police. The court warned that if Palghar police had no interest in investigating this case, they should say so plainly, and the matter would be handed over to the Mumbai Police Crime Branch.

The court also reprimanded the police for not maintaining the case diary properly. It said orders on this had been issued from time to time, and the Director General of Police had also ordered that case diaries be maintained regularly, yet the police were treating orders from their own senior officers as waste paper. The court directed that the Director General of Police be consulted on what action would be taken against the officers concerned. Lawyers told the court that the Director General of Police had called for all documents from Palghar police and would study them before taking appropriate action.

In the Dombivli case, the government pleader filed an affidavit confirming compliance with the court's earlier orders. The court was told that a chargesheet had been filed against Ramesh Mhatre and the other accused. But over non-compliance with earlier orders in that matter, the court angrily asked the police whether they were really serious about the case.

Of the ten people named in the initial complaint, Shiv Sena city chief Rahul Dharat has been arrested and is in police custody. The other nine accused are still absconding, and a complaint has also been registered against seven unidentified persons, Palghar Superintendent of Police Yatish Deshmukh told the court. The court asked why the police had not acted immediately to arrest the accused after the case was registered, and why the nine absconding accused had not been traced despite their identities being known. The court said the investigation did not appear to have moved quickly after the case was registered, and that this very negligence on the part of the police had allowed the accused to flee, meaning the police themselves had given them the chance to escape.