Cop denies using force during Dutt probe

July 23: A senior police officer has denied before the designated Tada court trying the Mumbai serial blasts case that filmstar Sanjay Dut...

July 23: A senior police officer has denied before the designated Tada court trying the Mumbai serial blasts case that filmstar Sanjay Dutt was compelled to make a statement during sustained interrogation seven years ago.

Deposing before designated J P D Kode on July 21, Senior Inspector Suresh Wali Shetty also refuted allegations that the actor had refused to make such a statement after he was compelled to do so. He told defence counsel Rajendra Singh during cross-examination that Dutt was interrogated in a closed room in the office of police commissionerate in South Mumbai on April 19, 1993, because passers-by often peeped inside.

Asked who the passers-by were in the police commissionerate, Shetty replied that they were reporters, canteen boys and visitors who peeped in to have a look at the actor.

To a question, he replied that the door of the room where Dutt was being interrogated was shut to keep him away from the prying eyes of the public and to thereby avoid disturbances. He also denied that other accused had been tortured in front of Dutt and refuted allegations of the defence counsel that some co-accused were being thrashed in adjoining rooms.

To another question, the inspector said he had been interrogating Dutt every day between April 19 and 26 but he did not make a record of each and every statement made by the actor. To another question, he denied that constables in the room where the actor was interrogated were carrying 8220;bol pattas8221; or belts with the letter 8220;bol8221; inscribed on it.

However, the inspector admitted that in the First Information Report FIR he had not mentioned about his visit to co-accused Yusuf Nalwalla8217;s house along with Dutt on April 19, 1993. This fact was omitted because it was not told to him by Assistant Police Inspector R R Joshi.

8220;It is true that I had dictated the complaint but this was done after the details were narrated to me by API Joshi. I had gathered that while narrating the details, API Joshi had missed two facts,8221; he told Dutt8217;s counsel.

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The witness agreed to the defence lawyer8217;s suggestion that both the facts were important and pertinent to the case because they were the origin of other events which occurred on the same day.

To a question, the police officer revealed that he had recorded several FIRs during his career and said he was aware that all important facts should be mentioned therein.

It is the prosecution8217;s case that Nulwalla, a childhood friend of Dutt, had picked up an AK-56 rifle and a pistol from the actor8217;s house in Bandra on his instructions and gave it to another friend for destruction. While theAK-56 was melted in a foundary, the pistol was preserved in a sealed cover with another friend.