RTI activist faking attack,claim police

Though Mane filed an affidavit today,saying that he had attacked himself,he said he was advised to do so by the police as he wanted to withdraw the case.

At a press conference in evening,District Superintendent of Police Pratap Dighavkar said the RTI activist on Tuesday filed an affidavit before the executive magistrate in Wadgaon Maval,saying that he attacked himself as he was disturbed. Dighavkar said they had evidence to prove that Mane had attacked himself with a “rapi” (sharp wepaon) on January 2.

Conceding that he filed an affidavit,Mane said he had done so to withdraw the assault case as his family was under tremendous mental strain. “I tried to impress upon the police that I wanted to end the case and they should tell me the way to end the case. The Talegaon police told me that an affidavit,stating that I attacked myself,would make for a strong ground to end the case.”

Dighavkar said the circumstantial evidence,forsensic report and the witness account showed that Mane was not attacked by anybody else. The police said they had seized Mane’s shirt with blood marks and the weapon. They also conducted medical test of Mane’s wounds on face and chest. But the medical and forensic reports stated that parts of the shirt that were cuts due to the alleged assault did not match with the position of wound marks on his body. The report stated that blood marks were not observed on the spots where Mane was allegedly attacked.

Police said while filing the complaint,Mane had not mentioned the weapon used. He also could not give specific description of the assailant. Mane said he was attacked at his shoe shop,but none of the shoe boxes was found to be misplaced.

Mane said the suggestion that he should submit an affidavit mentioning that he attacked himself came from police inspector Sanjay Nikam. When contacted,Nikam said the police have the evidence pointing to the fact that Mane attacked himself. “Let him (Mane) say what he wants to but we have the proof,” Nikam said.