Even as the Maharashtra government on Tuesday suspended two city police officers for conducting wrongful arrests of two Thane-based women over a Facebook post questioning the shutdown in the city during Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray’s funeral, State Home Minister R.R. Patil said there was no evidence that the suspended officers acted under pressure or influence from any external group or political party.
Konkan range Inspector-General Sukhwinder Singh’s report, which recommended action against the officials, also suggested the dropping of the cases slapped on the two women, Shaheen Dhada and Renu Srinivasan, according to a Home Ministry official.
The Home Minister has said that the State police would henceforth need to seek legal opinion before conducting arrests pertaining to the Indian IT Act. Awareness workshops to that effect would be arranged, he said.
Mr. Patil said he had not received any information or complaint pertaining to the case of two Air India crew members who spent 12 days in jail in May and were reinstated on Tuesday. The Minister said similar cases, where arrests had been made under the ambiguous IT Act, would be reviewed.
In a separate development, Palghar first-class magistrate Ramchandra Bagade, who had given bail to the two girls on a bond of Rs.15,000 each, was transferred to Jalgaon by an order of the Bombay High Court.
The Sena, meanwhile, has called for a bandh in Palghar district on Wednesday as a protest against the suspension of the two policemen.
