By IANS,
Mumbai : The Maharashtra government is in a dilemma following a Supreme Court order to arrest three Mumbai policemen, including one Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, for alleged dereliction of duty.
The court order came in an intervenor application in a pending writ petition, filed by Yogacharya Anandji alias Anand Joshi of the Yoga Training Centre, a Mumbai citizen, two years ago, seeking arrest of these officers on grounds of dereliction of duty.
The apex court had extended to Sep 2 the deadline for the state government to comply with its orders, Joshi told IANS here Saturday.
The three policemen are former investigating officer of Juhu Police station S. Tadlapurkar (still posted at Juhu), former senior police inspector of Juhu Police station Pradeep D. Shinde (now in Special Branch-I) and former deputy commissioner of police (DCP of zone IX) and IPS Vinay Kumar Chaube (now posted as Akola superintendent of police).
The matter pertains to housebreaking and theft of goods and valuables worth nearly Rs.1 million from the Yoga Training Centre on April 8, 2006.
“When I approached the Juhu police station, they refused to lodge my complaint,” he said. Since there was no further action by police, he made another application, under Criminal Procedure Code Section 154 (3), urging the DCP-Zone IX to initiate necessary action, but it was ignored.
Later, he joined as an intervener in an ongoing petition of a similar nature in which Justice B.N. Agarwal and Justice G.S. Singhvi passed the interim order on July 14.
When the state government failed to comply with the order, the Supreme Court confirmed the order Aug 8. The judges had ordered that the concerned officials must be suspended, jailed and then an inquiry be ordered in the matter.
Joshi said the judges also directed the registrar to post the order on the websites of the Supreme Court and all high courts in India, and also send it by email and fax to the chief secretaries and directors general of police of all states and union territories.
Following receipt of the order, the state chief secretariat passed it on to the home department, which in turn sent it to Mumbai Police Commissioner Hasan Gafoor.
Senior state government and police officials were late Saturday evening deliberating on the issue of implementing the ourt order.
However, a decision is likely to be taken by Monday in the matter since the police department has been tied up with security review meetings ahead of the 10-day Ganesh Chaturthi festival beginning Sep 3.