Pune Mirror: Pune: Wednesday, March
08, 2017.
Just over
three years after two city-based tree activists were convicted for vandalism at
the corporation office and attacking a senior civic body official, a serious
anomaly in the charges filed against them has been pointed out by the sessions
court, majorly embarrassing Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Deccan
Gymkhana police.
On Saturday,
sessions Judge Dilip Murumkar quashed the conviction order by the trial court,
remanding the case for a retrial and asking the prosecution to record
additional evidences a unique case in the history of city courts.
It was
brought forth by Judge Murumkar that Deccan police registered two different
FIRs with two different dates for the same criminal case, filed against both
the accused. It was also revealed that details in both copies were over-written
at a number of places and did not match, while spaces between lines were used
to make additions to the complainants’ statements.
In a judgment
on December 11, 2013, magistrate Amitsinh Mohane had sentenced tree activists
Vinod Raichand Jain (45) and Deepak Balkrishn Vahikar (61) to two years’
rigorous imprisonment, for throwing a paperweight at the PMC chief garden
superintendent, Ashok Ghorpade, as well as breaking a glass door at the garden
department office at Sambhaji Park on JM Road. The incident allegedly took
place on February 17, 2010, when Ghorpade, Jain and Vahikar had an argument
over procuring date under the Right to Information (RTI) Act regarding the
felling of some trees. The magistrate had found both accused guilty under
sections 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge
of his duty), 506 (criminal intimidation), 425 (damaging public property), and
other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). A fine of Rs 10,000 was
also slapped on the duo, for allegedly attacking Ghorpade with a paperweight,
threatening him, and throwing office equipment around.
Both
activists had later filed an appeal in the sessions court, which gave a status
quo order against the trial court’s earlier ruling by allowing an appeal. While
hearing the appeal, Judge Murumkar also asked the prosecution to expedite the
trial by getting FIRs exhibited on behalf of the accused. It instructed that
additional evidences be recorded in accordance with the law.
Advocate
Harshad Mandke, representing both the activists, said, “We submitted additional
evidences against the two FIRs, of which we procured certified copies under
RTI. The first one is dated February 17 and the other February 18, both in
2010. The timings of lodging the complaints were different on both, and there
was over-writing on the date and time of the alleged incident. Details like
‘throwing paper’ were changed to ‘throwing paperweights’.”
Said Jain,
“We only raised our voice against the garden department’s illegal work. We
never attacked the officer, as claimed in the FIR. I threw papers, not a
paperweight. This was all just done to prevent releasing tree felling
information under RTI a conspiracy between PMC officials and Deccan police.”
Additional
public prosecutor P S Agarwal, representing the prosecution, confirmed, “The
two FIRs revealed over-writing of details. Now, the lower court has the
jurisdiction to conduct a retrial and re-consider its earlier judgment.”
Deputy
commissioner of police (zone I) Sudhir Hiremath could not be contacted despite
repeated attempts. On condition of anonymity, an officer from Deccan police
told Mirror, “The then inspector incharge, Manohar Joshi, had signed both FIRs.
They only came to know about the anomalies after the hearing in the sessions
court.”
.JPG)
.JPG)
