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Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, May 19: Principal Sessions judge A S Aguiar today rejected the Mumbai police8217;s plea seeking more time to file their reply to the Samajwadi Party8217;s application seeking contempt proceedings against police commissioner R H Mendonca. The order has been reserved for tomorrow.
Counsel for Mumbai police Shrikant Bhat told the court Mendonca had gone abroad for official work and would return only on June 2. Since Mendonca had left India before the application was filed, he added that no instructions can be taken from him to file the reply. In his submission, Bhat said the matter should be kept pending till June 7, when the reply could be filed.
The judge observed that since the enquiry is likely to be completed by the first week of June, the question of adjourning the application didn8217;t arise. He reserved his orders for tomorrow.
On Monday, the Samajwadi Party SP through its counsels Majeed Memon and Abbas Kazmi had filed an application demanding that a notice be issued against Mendonca for contemptof court in connection with certain statements made by him in an interview to Bombay Times dated May 14, 1998. Commenting on the ongoing inquiry into encounters, Mendonca said in the interview that Javed Fawda was not innocent and also ruled out a case of mistaken identity.
He said the SP had come out with a false affidavit filed by some Fernandes, whom they couldn8217;t produce in court. He added that police officers had become inactive and demoralised due to the admission of petitions challenging encounters. The SP application said: 8220;It is distressing to observe that respondent No 2 Mendonca who is the party to these proceedings repeatedly makes public statements.8221; The party said such expressions by Mendonca seek to send a wrong signal to society by suggesting that High Court judges, without a just cause, are making police officers attend courts at the cost of their duties.
