Court convicts lawyer for defamation against IPS officer, sentences him to jail for a month

On March 10, 2014, Satara police had arrested police constable Dharmraj Kalokhe in a drugs case and later Marine drive police also sought his custody for another drugs case and he was produced before the magistrate court in the city.

The complainant IPS officer was then serving as Additional Commissioner of Police (Addl.CP) , crime branch, between 2014 and 2016 and was supervising functioning of various crime branch units for detection, narcotics cell, enforcement branch among others.

Chomal, in the said application filed on behalf of Kalokhe before the magistrate court, had claimed that the accused constable was interrogated by Satara police about the alleged role of senior IPS officer KMM Prasanna, who was then Additional CP in Mumbai, and is presently serving as Inspector General (IG), (establishments) in Maharashtra police.

IPS officer Prasanna alleged that based on an application made through Chomal, news reports were published citing alleged interrogation of Prasanna and the same caused damage to his reputation and was defamatory. Prasanna filed a complaint against Chomal for an offence under Section 500 (criminal defamation) of the IPC.

In a verdict passed on Friday, the magistrate observed that ‘application (by Chomal) naming present complainant (Prasanna) was completely unnecessary,” particularly when “there is not a whisper about the role of present complainant in said crime in the records of the said police station.

“It is apparent from record that, after these allegations inquiry was conducted by DGP and therein officer of concerned Police station has submitted a report to the effect that, they were not interrogating accused Kalokhe about the involvement of present complainant in the said crime at any point of time. Therefore it is apparent that allegations leveled against present complainant were without any basis and were mentioned in application with ulterior motive most probably to influence the investigation,” the bench said.

Advocate Amol Phoujdar, who was representing Prasanna, said any leniency shown to the accused will demoralise other government officials and maximum punishment be imposed on him to send a ‘strong message’. After Chomal sought leniency, the magistrate said one-month simple imprisonment will ‘meet ends of justice