Senior citizen battles for justice

Abhay Vaidya / TNN / Sep 21, 2007, 05:21 IST

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Residing since 1965 in a rented 474.72 sq ft flat on the second floor at 323 Shaniwar Peth, Gandale and his family refused to submit to the pressures of the landowner and builder.

PUNE: For the last 14 years, 67-year old Narhari Pandurang Gandale has been fighting a lone battle to bring justice to his family, which suffered human rights abuse during 1992-93 by a landowner and a builder, who tried to evict the Gandales from their rented premises at Shaniwar Peth here.
Although Gandale is physically and mentally exhausted and suffered a paralytic attack in 2005, he has not given up his crusade against nine police officials who remained silent spectators to the criminal intimidation suffered by his family.
On the basis of a police inquiry report (Deshbratar enquiry report), which established the dereliction of duty by nine officials from Pune's Vishrambaug police station and Shaniwar Peth police chowky, Gandale has now approached home minister R R Patil seeking justice.
Refusing to give up his pursuit for justice, Gandale, a retired senior auditor from the Defence Accounts Department, has demanded that criminal action be initiated against the nine police officials indicted by the Deshbratar report.

During extensive, multiple interviews to TOI, Gandale said he was furious that although the police department’s own probe established the guilt of its officials, most of them were let off with insignificant punishments ranging from "censure" to denial of increment for one year.
He has demanded that criminal cases should be filed against these officials under the Criminal Procedure Code section 319 (Power to proceed against other persons appearing to be guilty of offence).

As documented by the 2001 inquiry report filed by H V Deshbratar, (then DCP-traffic, Pune), police officials here remained mute spectators during 1992-93 as seven serious acts of criminal intimidation were committed by landowner Vithal Vinayak Bhuskute and builder Dilip Vasant Gupte in trying to forcibly and illegally evict the Gandales from their rented premises to re-develop the property.
Residing since 1965 in a rented 474.72 sq ft flat on the second floor at 323 Shaniwar Peth, Gandale and his family refused to submit to the pressures of the landowner and builder.
The Deshbratar report says the Gandales were then harassed criminally in various ways: breaking down a working toilet used by the Gandales (4/8/92), locking Gandale’s 20-year-old daughter when she had gone to the toilet (10/11/92), breaking the eastern, southern walls, gallery and bathroom of the flat occupied by the Gandales (27/8/92), weakening the staircase landing and the western wall (24/11/092), partly demolishing the first floor flat and blocking Gandale’s pathway/access to his flat (14/3/93).

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