Gujarat: Retired IPS officer Kuldip Sharma, Deputy SP get three-month imprisonment in case dating back to 1984

Sharma, a 1976-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, had retired in 2012. In 2015, he had joined the Congress and was later also appointed as the Vice President of the party’s Gujarat unit.

The court of additional chief judicial magistrate B M Prajapati in Bhuj passed the judgment, in connection with the case which was reported in May 1984, on the basis of a complaint filed by one Shankar Joshi.

Speaking with The Indian Express, advocate R S Gadhvi, who represented Joshi, said that the incident dates back to May 6, 1984, when Sharma was the Kutch SP and a delegation of local residents had gone to meet him to make a representation on alleged harassment being faced by some people in connection with the investigation in a case registered in Naliya at that time. Apart from the complainant, the delegation comprised a number of local leaders, including local MLA Kharashankar Joshi and local Congress leader Haji Abdulla Haji Ibrahim alias Ibhla Sheth (now deceased), Gadhvi said.

In his complaint, the complainant had alleged that when Sharma learnt about Sheth being a part of the delegation, he rebuked the MLA for bringing a “smuggler”, took him (Sheth) to an adjoining room and got him beaten up by Vasavada and two other accused police officers who have died pending trial.

A complaint in connection with the incident was registered before a Bhuj court on May 8, 1984.

Gujarat government had granted its sanction to prosecute Sharma, a government official, in February 2012 which is mandatory under the criminal law.

The accused were facing charges of wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

The case witnessed multiple litigations on various legal points and eventually, the Supreme Court ordered to expeditiously decide the matter in November last year.

Gadhvi said that the two have been convicted for wrongful confinement.

Meanwhile, in his statement, referring to the sanction Gujarat government granted to prosecute him and other accused in the case, Sharma said, while referring to Sheth, “This, perhaps, is the first and the only case in the country where a State Government gave sanction to a Cofeposa (Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) detenue, one arrested several times for smuggling of Gold and Silver, and one who was convicted, for prosecuting a district SP and other police officers.”