Hearing a petition filed by a woman alleging that police had falsely booked her in an extortion case and forcibly taken away her gold ornaments,the Bombay High Court has sought explanation from police why no action had been taken against the accused. The bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and A R Joshi also asked Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik and inspector of the local police station concerned to show the provision in law under which police officials can force one of the persons to hand over ornaments to other person on his own without a formal order of any court of competent jurisdiction. "In spite of such allegation made,why no action has been taken and ought to be taken against the concerned police officer?" the court sought to know in the show cause notice which is made returnable on August 21. "This is another matter where unilateral action has been taken by the police officials. Similar pattern was noticed in another petition decided on July 27,a copy of which order was forwarded to the Secretary,Home Department,Maharashtra," the bench noted. The Court has asked the Commissioner of Police to file an affidavit stating what inquiry has been undertaken on receipt of legal notice from the advocate of the aggrieved housewife Hansa Kedia. The notice has also been issued to Bharati Shah at whose instance the police allegedly took Kedia into custody on charges of extortion and seized gold ornaments worth over Rs 3 lakh in a search operation at her residence. Kedia filed a petition urging action against officials of Dindoshi police station who she alleged had connived with Bharati Shah to book in a false extortion case and made her part with ornaments on the pretext that these were seized under a panchnama.
