Bombay HC asks police to action against Shiv Sena corporator

Mumbai: The Bombay high court took cognisance of a complaint by a petitioner, which claims “police are deliberately not acting against Kamlakar Patil, a sitting corporator of Shiv Sena from Bhiwandi despite complaints of assault and attempt to murder against him.”

Reprimanding the state, the Bombay high court said, “Serious action would be taken against the police officials if they did not act on complaints against the corporator.” A division bench of Justices Ranjit More and Shalini Phansalkar Joshi heard the petition filed by RTI activist Vinay Mishra, which highlighted the consequences he faced for questioning the misuse of corporator funds.  

The 65-year old activist’s petition said that in 2014 he had sought information about funds related to cyclone relief, which had not reached many affected people. The petitioner said that while the Bhiwandi Nizampur Municipal Corporation (BNMC) did not reply to his query, he was allegedly beaten up with rods and knives by men of Kamlakar Patil, the Shiv Sena corporator of ward 79 from BNMC.    

Mishra further pointed out that when he tried to lodge a complaint against Patil with Bhiwandi police they refused to register an FIR, instead filed case against unknown person, who the police claimed were untraceable.

Counsel for the petitioner, Advocate Sadhna Kumar told the court, “The police filed a closure report saying the men were untraceable. They did not name the corporator in the FIR and Mishra was assaulted several times again by Patil’s men last year for pursuing the case.” The state counsel admitted that the men who assaulted Mishra were associated with Patil and claimed that they remained untraceable. After hearing state counsel’s argument the court observed, “This is a serious offence and this attitude by police is shocking. This is happening merely because he is a corporator. What about poor people’s complaints? How will they get justice?” The court will hear the matter on January 31.