The Rabale police have dropped some of the charges, including attempt to murder and molestation, from the case after going through footage of the fisticuffs between the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and Shiv Sena workers on Friday.
The police have dropped Sections 307 (attempt to murder) and 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the IPC from the complaint made by NCP workers. From Sena’s complaint, Section 354 (outraging the modesty of a woman) has been dropped.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Zone I, Sudhakar Pathare, said, “When we scrutinised the videos, we did not find any evidence supporting the claims made by the complainants. The sections of rioting, assault and gathering crowd still remain in both cases. We have submitted a report to the court on why those sections are not relevant in the case.”
Mr. Pathare said as per Section 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, in case of cognisable offences, police officers have to write down the complaint as mentioned by the complainant. “In the further course of investigations, the investigating officer has the right to add or drop sections as per the findings. For a charge like attempt to murder, a motive has to be there. A person who has welcomed another by bursting fire crackers a few minutes prior won’t be attempting murder. Even in case of outraging the modesty, nowhere in the videos did we see any such act,” Mr Pathare said.
In the cross complaints filed by the two parties, Airoli corporator M.K. Madhvi of the Sena and other party workers were accused of attempting to murder and deterring NCP MLA Sandeep Naik’s bodyguard from discharging his duty, while Mr. Naik and NCP Mayor Jaywant Sutar were accused of outraging the modesty of Mr. Madhvi’s wife.
“The Madhvi family is absconding and hence have not been arrested,” Mr. Pathare said. The Rabale police have arrested seven NCP workers and six Sena workers. All 13 were produced in court and have been granted bail, senior police inspector Sanjay Godse said.
