Malad cops fail to act on plaint, HC pulls up city police

The Bombay high court on Tuesday pulled up the Mumbai police for allegedly taking no action when the Malad police failed to act upon a petitioner's complaint. The petitioner had complained against members of her neighbouring society for grievously assaulting her employee. The court directed the Malad police to complete the investigation into the assault compliant within two weeks and inform the court.

A division bench of Justices Naresh Patil and Prakash Naik was hearing a criminal writ filed by advocate M.V. Thorat, representing petitioner Vandana Goyal, against Malad police for not arresting the accused named in an FIR registered by her on April 13, this year. The petition prayed that since the respondent (Malad police) failed to perform its duty, the case be transferred to some other police station.

According to the petition, Riddhi Vinayak Critical Care and Cardiac Center was started on a property purchased in 2002 at Riddhi Vinayak Temple lane, S V Road, Malad West. Ms Goyal had been working at the centre as senior administrator since 2003. Later, the centre also purchased adjoining properties. However, there was a passage near the centre that the residents of a nearby society, named Pushpa Chandra, began using as parking lot. Subsequently, the centre covered the passage after acquiring requisite permissions from the BMC. The petition further said that after being covered, the passage was turned into a waiting area for patients. This did not go down well with the society members, who entered into a scuffle with Ms Goyal.

The matter turned serious when some members assaulted one of Ms Goyal’s employees with a floor tile, resulting in a grievous injury to his head. A case was filed against the accused members of the society with Malad police under various sections 34, 324, 354 and 141 of IPC. However, the police failed to take any action against the accused. After numerous letters to various police authorities, too, failed to elicit any action in the case, the writ was filed.

Advocate Thorat alleged, “The police was safe-guarding the accused and since they failed to act, we prayed that the court direct the police to arrest the accused and transfer the case to another police station.”

Hearing the petition, the bench observed, “What will a common man do if police doesn’t do its job What’s the use of writing letters to commissioner if even that does not help.”