Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Monday granted bail to three policemen convicted for the custodial death of Aniket Khicchi, 20, in 2013. Khicchi, son of a vegetable vendor in Kurla, was out with his friends for a movie when he was picked up by the police for allegedly stealing a laptop from Goregaon Sports Complex. Before his arrest on December 24, 2013, he had been beaten up by a group of people at the sports complex.
Khicchi was being interrogated at Vanrai police station and was taken to a detection room. He was taken to Cooper Hospital in an unconscious state, where he was declared ‘brought dead’.
After nearly two months, police constables Chandrakant Kamble, Umesh Gosavi, Sandeep Salunkhe and Kiran Pingale, who were interrogating Khicchi, were charged with murder and criminal conspiracy. The constables are presently lodged in Taloja jail.
Khicchi’s parents approached the HC in July 2014, requesting that a Special Public Prosecutor be appointed and a judicial inquiry be ordered into their son’s death. In a bizarre response, the state government’s affidavit had said: “A custodial death is not so publicly important for an SPP to be appointed, and if the victim’s father wishes to get one appointed by the State, he will have to deposit the fees of the SPP with the State government, and only then will the State appoint one.”
On January 30, 2016, a sessions court convicted the four policement under IPC sections 304 II (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), section 330 (voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession, or to compel restoration of property) and sentenced them to seven years in jail, which includes the time they spent in jail after their arrest.
A Division Bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and S.V. Kotwal granted bail, saying the convicts have completed more than half their jail terms.
