2 min readMumbaiMar 27, 2015 04:08 AM IST
First published on: Mar 27, 2015 at 04:08 AM IST
Till our police attain the requisite levels of professional competence, the grant of additional punitive powers that have wide scope for discretion must be resisted.
Following the Supreme Court’s order dismissing section 66 A from the Information Technology Act, the Metropolitan Magistrate’s court in Borivali on Thursday ordered the Kasturba Marg police to drop the section from an FIR filed by them six months ago.
The accused, who was traced after months of efforts, subsequently had to be charged only under the section for insulting the modesty of a woman of the IPC. “As the section is bailable, the accused got bail immediately,” said Police Inspector R Mandhare, Kasturba Marg police station.
In October 2014, a 24-year-old woman had approached the police and filed an FIR against the accused, identified as Vicky Jain, after he allegedly began to send her lewd text messages.
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The police said that the woman, who works for an event management company, had looked up Jain’s profile on a social networking website and contacted him. Jain, being an event manager, had responded and they had exchanged phone numbers. Jain had then allegedly started sending the woman lewd messages on WhatsApp and later on SMS.
The police, last year, had sent a team to Rajasthan, mentioned as his residence in his profile, but could not find him.
Finally, in December last year, the police enlisted the aid of a woman who, at the police’s behest, contacted Jain on Facebook. After four months, he agreed to come to Mumbai last week.
The moment he landed the police arrested him. He was charged under Section 66 A of the IT Act and Section 509 of the IPC. On Thursday, however, the court dropped the IT Act section and was granted bail immediately.
Till our police attain the requisite levels of professional competence, the grant of additional punitive powers that have wide scope for discretion must be resisted.
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