The Special Cell of the Delhi Police came under fire from a court here on Tuesday, which directed the Delhi Police Commissioner to register FIRs against an Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police and three police officers belonging to the crack unit for allegedly extorting money through threats to implicate the victims in a false case.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav, acquitted all the accused in a case of cable theft after concluding that the police officers had framed them to extort money. The court also directed the Police Commissioner to register an FIR against the Special Cell's Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ravi Shanker, Inspector Anil Dureja, Sub-Inspector Gajender, and Head Constable Hari Kishan under appropriate sections of the law.
Expressing concern over the misuse of power by the Special Cell, the CMM observed: “This case is a classic example of how and to what extent the police officers can go in framing persons, committing extortion and then make them suffer the ignominy of criminal prosecution by sheer misuse of power of investigation granted to them under the Code of Criminal Procedure…The police officers concerned are of the Special Cell, which is supposed to be a premier investigating agency of the Delhi Police specially created to deal with the cases of terrorists and anti-social elements.”
The CMM observed that none of the prosecution witnesses had supported the Special Cell case and that the complainant, Rajeev Pahuja of North Delhi Cable Network registered the case against the accused persons for personal gains.
Coming down hard on the Investigating Officer SI Gajendra, the court said: “The IO went on in his zeal to frame the accused persons, and in the process created false investigation record, torn off the investigation record, extorted money from the accused persons by putting them in fear of implicating them in a MCOCA case.”
The CMM, further, noted that the policemen had demanded a huge payment from the accused persons in their custody and also released some of them after getting paid. Mr. Shanker is heading one of the three special squads constituted by the Police Commissioner to investigate the recent blast at the Delhi High Court.
