Khandwawala faces contempt charge

According to details of the case,Khandwawala had filed a chargesheet against a woman Assistant Commandant of the CRPF in a case involving abduction and other charges registered against her and six others by senior IPS officer O P Mathur. The complaint against the CRPF officer,identified as Sunita Yadav who is now an Assistant Commandant posted in Jammu and Kashmir,was subsequently quashed by the HC in 1997.

Mathur,who retired as Ahmedabad city police commissioner,had registered a case against Sunita,her sister — Sarita Sharma — and five others,alleging that they had abducted him in December 1996 seeking his help to absolve Sarita’s husband in a murder case.

Subsequently,Sunita and other accused approached the HC seeking to get the complaint against them quashed. The HC quashed the complaint against her in January 1997,but refused to do so in the case of six others.

Incidentally,Mathur,who was a senior police officer at that time,is himself facing charges of sexual harassment and assault in a cross-complaint filed by Sarita.

Later,its investigation was handed over to the then Additional Director General of Police,S S Khandwawala,as the case involved a senior IPS officer. Khandwawala submitted a chargesheet against seven people,including Sunita,in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate,Ahmedabad,on September 9,2008.

Calling criminal investigation and submission of the chargesheet against her by Khandwawala a clear violation of the HC order,Sunita moved a Contempt of Court petition against him through her lawyer,R J Goswami.

The division bench of Justices Jayant Patel and Abhilasha Kumari,which heard the petition today,observed that this is an ex-facie contempt of the court on the part of a senior police officer.

The court also observed that if this is the approach of the DGP in dealing with matters then the court would have no option but to issue him a contempt notice.