Kheda public flogging: Gujarat HC seeks appearance of accused cops in contempt petition

The petitioners sought in their petition that the 15 police officials be “punished for contempt and non-compliance” of the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the case of DK Basu versus the State of West Bengal, which provides for guidelines to be followed by police during arrest and detention, and have also sought that the petitioners be awarded adequate compensation.

While the notice was issued in October with the returnable date kept for December 12 at the time, no reply has been filed to date by the accused police personnel, and neither have they engaged any lawyer so far. The accused police personnel continue to serve in the local crime branch (LCB) with no punitive actions taken by the state administration as well, according to the petitioners’ counsel, senior advocate IH Syed.

It is the case of the petitioners that on October 3 at around 11 pm, an altercation had broken out in the village of Undhela at Matar taluka of Kheda district, arising out of Garba festivities, after the arrival of MLA of Matar constituency Keshrisinh Solanki and his entourage, had arrived at the site.

Thereafter, 11 police personnel, who have been named as respondents in the petition, had arrived at the scene and detained “innocent persons including the petitioners”, and according to the petitioners, at around 2 am, the police personnel had also entered the house of a lady named Maksudabanu (one of the petitioner), in the absence of any lady constable, and was beaten up by one of the police personnel (AV Parmar, police inspector of LCB Kheda), with her sustaining injuries.

The petitioners were then taken to SOG police station at Kheda and were kept in illegal detention overnight. The petitioners have further submitted that on October 4 at around 12 pm, the petitioners and five others were brought back to Undhela village Masjid chowk, tied to a pole in the middle of the chowk and were beaten up by 13 police personnel using lathi in front of a crowd. Videos were recorded and circulated to the public by the police personnel, according to the petitioners. According to the petitioners, following the flogging, they were taken to Matar police station and were formally shown to be arrested on October 4 at 9.15 pm. The petitioners submitted that they were presented before the magistrate on October 5 at 2 pm.

Taken up by the bench of Justices NV Anjaria and Niral Mehta, Syed submitted on Wednesday, “They’re not even transferred, they’re working in LCB, prime posting…This is not an adversarial litigation, but this is something extremely blatant — taking in illegal custody, getting in police vehicles, making videos and posting on social media, by the policemen themselves. And now they are being continued in the same position, what is the message being sent? We made representations to DG, IG, that please remove them (accused cops), they (petitioners) are being intimidated, but absolutely nothing (has been done).”

The division bench has now kept the matter for further hearing on January 30, by when the accused police personnel are expected to file reply affidavits.