Five years after a traffic constable claimed that he had been assaulted on duty on a Mumbai highway, a court, calling his version “exaggerated”, has acquitted three persons in the case. The Dindoshi sessions court, in a recent order, said that the “story might have been concocted” to teach the accused a lesson after an exchange of words. On October 6, 2012, head constable Nandkumar Bankar, attached to the traffic branch of Kandivali police station, had claimed that he was assaulted by three men, after he had stopped one of them for a traffic violation. “The story of obstruction, assault, beating and abuse appears to be far from convincing and free from doubts,” the court said while acquitting the accused. It further said that the investigating officials had not been able to explain how the initially applied offence of 307 (attempt to murder) of the Indian Penal Code was converted to 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide). Other evidence including lack of an identification parade to identify the accused, the lack of panchnama seizing the constable’s torn shirt buttons and other omissions in the testimony of eyewitnesses led to the acquittal. The defence claimed that since the constable was subsequently suspended on charges of corruption, his testimony cannot be relied upon. “The said fact is not denied by the prosecution. Even that apart, what can be gathered is that there might be an exchange of hot words on account of giving a receipt or police excess, and to teach lesson to the accused, the story might have been concocted,” the court said. According to the prosecution, Bankar was on duty at the Western Express Highway near Bhor junction, accompanied by home guard personnel and a traffic warden, when he saw a Maruti car proceeding from the wrong side and its driver, Raju Hirave, not wearing a seat belt. Bankar told the court that he asked the driver to pull aside to which the driver responded that he was the bodyguard of a local political leader and had seen hundreds of traffic policemen like him and that he could not do anything to him. When Bankar restrained him by knocking on the bonnet of his car, the driver got down and allegedly held Bankar’s collar and scuffled with him. The prosecution said Bankar was rescued by the home guard and the warden. The driver left, but stopped after covering some distance and called the other men who joined him and allegedly beat and kicked Bankar. The constable managed to escape and took an autorickshaw to the police chowky from where he was taken to Bhagwati Hospital. The police had booked the men including Hirave, Vijay Kevat and Pradip Bhalekar under sections including 323 (punishment for causing voluntary hurt), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter a public servant from discharging his duty) and section 308 read with section 34 (common intent) of the IPC. The prosecution had examined nine witnesses including Bankar.
