Cops in the dock for contempt of court

Kalyan Rao, the accountant at TSS, was arrested by Vile Parle police on October 15, 1997, despite the anticipatory bail granted to him by Justice A P Palkar of the High Court the previous day.

Following the affidavit filed by Rao and one Mohan Krishnan, a division bench of Justice A P Shah and J A Patil has directed the respondents to file affidavits by November 17, explaining why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against them for violating the court order.

Rao was allegedly assaulted by the TSS managing director Rahul Nanda, his personal assistant Hemant Bangera, Shyamkant Rane, a Shiv Sena shakha pramukh, and Nanda’s bodyguard Dharmendra on September 22, 1997. A case was filed against them at Santacruz police station.

On September 26, Nanda registered a complaint against Rao with Vile Parle police station, saying he had robbed Rs 3 lakh from the Tops office on September 22. Rao applied for anticipatory bail, and in an order on October 14, Justice Palkar ordered that Rao should not be arrested by Vile Parle police.

In his affidavit, Rao has alleged that in the early hours of October 15, PSI Rokade and others from Vile Parle (East) police station came to his Malad residence to arrest him in connection with the robbery case. He has stated that he showed them a xerox copy of his advocate’s letter, which had been delivered to Vile Parle police station, along with the anticipatory bail order, the previous evening.

However, according to Rao, Rokade ignored the letter and took him to the police station handcuffed. In his affidavit the TSS accountant further states that Rokade then took him to the remand room and interrogated him about the alleged theft. Thereafter, he was produced before Senior PI Shetty, who told him there was no communication from his advocate regarding the court order. Subsequently, Rao was produced before the metropolitan magistrate, 22nd court, Andheri, and remanded to police custody till October 23.