The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the conviction of police sub-inspector Balvant Sonara and two constables in connection to a 2004 case of assaulting and tonsuring a man at Bhesan village in Gujarat’s Junagadh district, giving the three convicts three weeks to surrender. While delivering its judgment on Monday, the division bench of Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice S V N Bhatti trashed a special leave petition filed by Sonara and constables Ramesh Pansuriya and Ramji Mayatra. “We are not inclined to interfere with the impugned judgment and hence, the special leave petition is dismissed. Interim order dated 25.09.2023 passed by this court is vacated. The petitioners will surrender within three weeks from today. In case they do not surrender within the said period, police will take appropriate action in accordance with law,” the SC ruled. The order was made available on Tuesday. The three policemen had moved the Supreme Court after the Gujarat High Court, on August 28, upheld their conviction by a trial court in Bhesan. Shivansh Pandya, advocate of Dinesh Limbani – elder brother of victim Himmat Limbani – said the three policemen argued that they had been put on trial without due sanction from the Gujarat government under Section 197 of the CrPC and that the original complainant, Himmat, had died during pendency of the matter and therefore, its impact on evidence should be assessed. Under Section 197, the sanction of the government is required to prosecute a public servant. Pandya said, “The Supreme Court agreed with the HC ruling that sanction to prosecute was not applicable in this case as the policemen were not discharging any official duty while assaulting the victim. Justice Khanna remarked orally that fracturing someone’s skull, shaving head, blackening face. Such things can never be part of official duty so as to attract Section 197.” The SC judgment marks culmination of a long fight for justice for the Limbanis. According to the prosecution's case, a man and his two brothers beat up Himmat, a chhakado rickshaw driver, for allegedly eve-teasing his daughter on February 2, 2004. When Himmat, his father Dhirajlal and elder brothers Vasantbhai and Dinesh went to the police to file a complaint, Sonara – then in charge of Bhesan police station – beat him up, saying there was a complaint against him of harassing a woman. According to the prosecution, Sonara and then constables Ramesh Pansuriya, Dadubhai Mer and Ramji Mayatra smashed Himmat’s head against wall and forced Vasant to tonsure Himmat. Later on, they also forced Himmat to blacken his face. The accused policemen then paraded Himmat in Bhesan village and beat up his uncle Ramesh. After they were let off, Himmat and Ramesh were admitted to a hospital in Junagadh where they told doctors that they had been assaulted by the police. They also wrote to then Junagadh superintendent of police and other authorities but to no avail. Eventually, Himmat moved a local court on March 1, 2004 and it ordered an inquiry. The court eventually ordered proceedings against the policemen under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon or means), 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) and 114 (abettor present when offence is committed) of the Indian Penal Code. During the pendency of trial, Himmat was found hanging on an agricultural farm in Bhesan on May 26, 2008, even as a trial court had rejected the policemen’s discharge application. However, on December 12, 2009, a magisterial court in Bhesan acquitted the policemen for want of evidence and lack of sanction from the state government under Section 197 of CrPC. Following this, Himmat’s father moved the sessions court. On February 16, 2016, the sessions court quashed the trial court’s verdict and remanded the matter back to the trial court for a fresh hearing. On February 27, 2017, the trial court in Bhesan, after hearing the matter afresh, convicted the policemen. The Junagadh sessions court also upheld the conviction vide its January 25, 2022 order. Subsequently, the policemen moved the HC, which also upheld the three years of imprisonment and fine of Rs 6,000 imposed on Sonara and one-year imprisonment and Rs 1,000-fine awarded to Pansuriya and Mayatra. The case against Dadubhai Mer was abated after his death. “It has been almost 20 years that we have been fighting for justice. We think we are about to get justice though we have been told that the policemen have some last legal remedies available. But we are confident that we will get justice and we will persist,” said Dinesh, who runs a hair dressing salon in Bhesan. Sonara, who is posted a sub-inspector at Wanakaner taluka police station in Morbi, said that he will go for legal remedies. “I respect the Supreme Court judgment. However, our advocates are studying the order and we will avail of whatever legal remedies are available to us,” he said.
