Written by: Express News Service
2 min readChandigarhApr 22, 2013 02:00 AM IST
First published on: Apr 22, 2013 at 02:00 AM IST
In order to bring the alleged spat between a city-based jeweller and a bureaucrat to the notice of the Nation Human Rights Commission (NHRC),a city-based advocate has written to the NHRC,New Delhi demanding the suspension of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (East),Tanvi Garg,her gunman Rakesh and her driver Harjit Singh.
According to Pankaj Chandgothia,“The SDM along with her gunman and driver and also the Chandigarh Police have manipulated the law and connived with each other,denying the freedom of an Indian citizen and putting him in illegal detention for 21 hours. There was no cognizable offence against him”.
As per the advocate,the very fact that the police left Vikrant Kumar after producing him before the SDM,shows that Kumar was not formally arrested. Therefore,keeping him in lock-up from 7 pm on April 17 to 3 pm on April 18 amounts to unlawful detention. This is a human rights violation.
Kumar’s jeep and mobile phone were impounded despite the fact that there was no traffic violation by him,as per the advocate.
The incident,which took place on April 17 involved a Sector 44 resident,Vikrant Kumar,who was arrested by the UT Police after he avoided a collision between the official vehicle of SDM and Director UT Tanvi Garg and his jeep. Hours after this incident,Kumar was arrested by the police from his residence and was produced in the court of SDM Tanvi Garg the next day who granted him bail.
This move of the SDM to hear this case and the police leveling Section 107/151 of the CrPC on Kumar has brought a lot of criticism from a cross-section of persons of the society. The local MPs,senior advocates,retired police officers and other prominent citizens of Chandigarh have condemned the incident,calling it illegal and a misuse of power by the IAS officer.
Meanwhile,Kumar and his family had also met the UT Advisor KK Sharma who has promised them that he would take suitable action after investigating the case from all angles.
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