Former Director General of Police (DGP) Shabbir Khandwawala, 76, who was Gujarat’s first Muslim police chief, was Tuesday acquitted in a case of custodial torture going back 50 years by the Gujarat High Court on the grounds that the prosecution had “failed to establish beyond reasonable doubt” the bodily injury to the complainant was inflicted in police custody.
In a 164-page judgment delivered Tuesday, Justice Gita Gopi of the Gujarat HC set aside the 2003 judgment that had convicted the 1973-batch IPS officer to five years of rigorous imprisonment handed out by the Additional Sessions Judge of the Fifth Fast Track Court in Junagadh, holding that it was “erroneous and fails in merit”. The State government’s appeal seeking enhancement of the sentence was also dismissed. The trial was carried out on a complaint by one Merag Haja who alleged he was tortured in custody to “extract a confession” that led to him being permanently maimed.
Khandwawala, who went on to head the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), told The Indian Express on Tuesday, that the acquittal had provided him “great relief”.
Khandwawala was posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police, in Mangrol Sub-Division of Junagadh district and was investigating the murder of the Porbandar Municipality president Dhanji Kotiyawala when he conducted a combing operation in the house of Merag Haja who was treated as a suspect in the murder case. Porbandar was then part of Junagadh district.
The searches were conducted on October 7, 1976 at Sutrej village of Keshod taluka in Junagadh and Haja was taken to the Porbandar Police Station. Haja alleged he was beaten up by Khandwawala and five other people, which resulted in him fracturing the femur of his left leg.
He filed a private complaint before the local court. Khandwawala and other police officers were booked under charges of the IPC related to voluntarily causing grievous hurt and use of criminal force, “with a view to extort confession and for causing hurt by endangering life and personal liberty of the complainant for wrongful confinement at Porbandar Police station.”
One of the officers co-accused – a sub-inspector PA Raol died during pendency and the trial against him was abated. Khandwawala was convicted in 2003 when he was an ADGP, being fined Rs 2000.
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Two other accused, sub-inspectors Bhupatsinh Devubha Vaghela and Rampalsingh Hardansinh Pawar were given a one-year prison sentence with a fine of Rs 1,000. Both died and the appeal stood abated against them.
The sentence was suspended around two years later making way for Khandwawala’s promotion as DGP and appointment as police chief ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. He was police chief till 2010 retiring after a three-month extension.
In 2009, the Supreme Court , in response to a Special Leave Petition, directed the HC not to dispose of the appeal without hearing Haja’s son Pola Sutreja, as the complainant had died.
‘Medical evidence does not support injuries described’:
The HC held that the complainant had failed to prove that he was in the custody of the police on the day and at the time when he has alleged custodial torture and that the medical evidence of the injuries sustained by the complainant ‘did not support’ the description of the torture.
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The HC judgement states, “…certainly those injuries would have been on all those parts of the body. None of these injuries have been seen by (the doctor) who had visited the complainant, while he was in police custody…”
‘CID inspector aided the complainant’
The court also further noted that two other persons– Bhikha Deva and Jusab Habib– who were also in police custody at the same time as Haja, “had not made any complaint of police torture” nor were paid a visit by a Crime Investigation Department (CID) Inspector, who was recorded as having visited Haja and “assured him that he would make efforts to send him to the Hospital”.
The judgment further states, “It appears that the CID Inspector has aided the complainant… It appears from the evidence that the complainant himself had made all the efforts to come out from the police custody. He had not allowed (Khandwawala) as the police to interrogate him in custody and he shifted himself to (hospital) from where he filed the bail application.”
‘No evidence of being in custody’
The judgment states that the complainant “did not provide sufficient evidence” to prove that he was in police custody on the alleged dates of torture from October 7 to October 10, 1976, and that he had been admitted to a hospital from October 13 to November 24, 1976.
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The HC also notes that during the trial the defence witness– a police officer — had testified that Haja was brought to the Porbandar police at 5.30pm on October 9, 1976 and arrested at midnight. The Panchnama of the weapons produced was also done at the police station.
Noting that Haja was not in police custody on October 7 and 8, the HC judgment states, “The complainant had all the reason to cook up the story since he was suspected in the background of the murder of Porbandar Municipal President – Dhanji Kotiyawala… The prosecution has not brought any document to
show as to what had happened about the investigation in connection with the murder of Dhanjibhai Kotiyawala. Was it that the complainant – Merag Haja was trying to hide something or was creating evidence to bring pressure on the police, does not get ruled out…”
The HC order also made observations against the Trial Court saying that the “Judge also forgot the fact that (an FIR) was filed against (Haja) and others under the Arms Act… (testimonies of witnesses) clarifies under what circumstances and in what manner (Haja and others) came to be arrested…” The court also noted that Haja had moved a bail plea in the Arms Act case while in hospital and was bailed out.
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It noted that Haja was given an opportunity to report the custodial torture before the magistrate’s court which he did not.
After retiring as DGP, Khandwawala was Group President at Essar’s Mumbai office for 10 years. He told The Indian Express that he quit the Essar job during Covid 19 and on returning to Ahmedabad, was appointed to the BCCI as head of its Anti-Corruption Unit in 2021, a tenure that ended in December 2024.
Based in Ahmedabad, Khandwawala is a consultant at various corporate firms.
