Police in India
treat the law like their pet dog. When
they want to commit illegal activities,
they command "Tommy sleep in that
corner and close your eyes"... When
they want to harass any citizen
"Tommy bite that man, he refuses to
pay us"... I K Chhugani
(Reproduced
from Times of India 15th April 2008 pg 2)
Sr citizen
held for kidnapping builders man
Mateen Hafeez I TNN
Mumbai: A senior citizen, who took a
manager working for a builder to the Vakola police
station to lodge a complaint against him, was instead
arrested for kidnapping and wrongful confinement. The
Vakola police justified the arrest saying it was a
technical kidnapping case.
Charles Baptista was arrested
on April 3 and put behind bars. A diabetic, the
67-year-old spent 24 hours in the police lockup till
he was released on a bail of Rs 5,000 by the Bandra
court. Baptista alleged that the police targeted him
after taking a huge bribe.
The case is based on a
property dispute. Baba Shaikh, who works as a
manager for builder Purshottam Redkar of
Lifestyle Developers, lodged the complaint of
kidnapping. Said Fariya DSouza,
Baptistas daughter who teaches in a
school at Malad, My father is the
landlord of 60 rooms and we have been staying
here for over 36 years and pay all taxes. He
had bought this property from the Wadia
Trust.
The plot, measuring 1,740 sq m,
in Kalinas Kolovery village is divided
into chawls and Baptista gets a rent of Rs
100 a month from each tenant.
On the night of
April 2, some labourers came and stayed in
room No 5. We objected to it as it belonged
to our tenant. The labourers told us that
they were asked to stay there by their
employer, who had bought the room,
said Fariya.
The next day, Shaikh arrived
and showed his papers, saying he had purchased the
room at Rs 11 lakh for his company, Siddha
Infrastructures and Realty Developers. Our
tenants have shifted to their Kandivli and Dahisar
flats and therefore, therooms were locked. Moreover,
we were not interested in giving the project to
Redkar, added Fariya.
When Shaikh came on April
3, I asked him to sit in the vehicle and come to the
police station so that I could tell the police that
he was cheating by submitting forged papers. However,
at the police station, the personnel there arrested
me for kidnapping Shaikh. Can I kidnap anyone at this
age? asked Baptista, who is undergoing
treatment for blood pressure as well.
Baptista further pointed out
that the policemen initially asked him to compromise
with the builder. I was sent to the Bandra
police lock-up around midnight and spent the night
there. The following afternoon, I was released on
bail, added Baptista.
Anil Kharade, senior inspector
of the Vakola police, said, It was a case of
technical kidnapping. The land belongs to Mhada and
an SRA project is under way. Baptista had hired one
Ganesh Vichare to threaten the complainant. Vichare
is a known criminal in our records. Vichare had
threatened Shaikh with a chopper.
Redkar contradicted
Baptistas claim of landlordship.
In 1976, Mhada bought the land from
the Wadia Trust. If Baptista is the
landlord of the chawl, then why is the
house not in his name? I have submitted
papers in Mhada for an SRA project on the
plot. We tried to convince Baptista
several times to show the documents
pertaining to his landlordship, but he
did not do it and harassed the tenants,
alleged Redkar.... mateen.hafeez@timesgroup.com
(Similiar
is the case in Mumbai. After police arrested I K
Chhugani in a false case in 2005, a NGO PLEAD was
registered and Writ petitions were filed against
illegal Police chowkies ... & Court order
received for demolishing 6,000 illegal police
chowkies across Maharashtra refer... http://www.RoguePolice.com/howmany.htm )
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