Caught on wrong foot, cops harass family for withdrawing case

Nagpur: The Shahu family of Binaki Mangalwari called on the city police chief BK Upadhyay on Friday with a complaint of being pressurised and threatened by policemen to withdraw their petition in high court to be heard on June 11. The petition, for which notices had been already issued, was filed seeking action against Pachpaoli police for framing Mohit Shahu and another person for possession of narcotics.

The family is under relentless pressure from Pachpaoli police who are forcing them for a compromise and withdraw certain names as respondents from the petition. TOI, which had reported the case, also started receiving calls from late Thursday evening regarding the same issue. Upadhyay told TOI that he would ask Zonal DCP Rahul Maknikar to look into the matter.

When they did not budge, Shahus, who are scrap dealers, started receiving calls from their customers and others saying police had started meeting asking about details of the petitioner’s family. It is reliably learnt the cops had also tried to lure a rival of the Shahus to share information about their business so they could be implicated in some case. “We are now living in constant fear. Our livelihood too is now being targeted by the cops,” said Mohit’s younger brother Rohit who had taken up the fight for justice along with their parents.

The family has, through senior advocate RP Joshi assisted by Sameer Sonwane, filed a petition for quashing of First Information Report (FIR) against Mohit and Amir Malik, co-accused in the case about alleged possession of 29 gms of contraband substance in February this year. The petition also prays for shifting the investigation to State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).

“It was shortly after the issuing of notice that our family started receiving calls from various cops, their connections and also investigation officer who landed up at our house. The constables would put pressure to meet us and agree to withdraw their names,” said a Shahu family member. She said a person, identified as Sachin, had made more than half a dozen calls on Thursday.

The family had earlier exposed the Pachpaoli police by seeking CCTV camera footage from Nagpur Smart and Sustainable Development Corporation Ltd through the Right to information (RTI) Act. TOI had published the details of CCTV footage that made almost clear that Pachpaoli police team had zeroed in upon Mohit at a place near Kanji house chowk junction which is under Yashodhara Nagar police station at about 6.45pm on February 25. Pachpaoli police, however, had stated in FIR that Mohit was nabbed at 3.35am the following day from Shaitan Chowk near Vaishali Nagar garden for reasons best known to them.

The petitioner, apart from pointing out that the cops had snatched Rs2.36 lakh from him, also mentioned in the petition that there was a demand of Rs3 lakh from his family from cops. Despite taking Rs2.36 lakh, police showed recovery of only Rs35,000. In the petition, it was also mentioned that the cops had used a car, belonging to father of one of the constables, to nab Mohit and his alleged accomplice.