Facebook arrests: Relief for Palghar girls on the cards?

MUMBAI: With Maharashtra home minister R R Patil on Tuesday announcing that two senior police officers have been suspended and a third one has received a stern warning for the erroneous arrests of two Palghar girls, the focus now shifts to whether the police will drop charges against the girls and pursue the case against the 10 men who were allegedly part of a mob that caused lakhs of rupees worth of damage to a hospital belonging to one of the girl's uncles.

Shaheen Dhada and Rinu Srinivasan, both 21 had been arrested on November 19 for a Facebook post that lamented the shutdown during Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray's funeral. Dr Abdul Dhada's hospital had been vandalized.

TOI reported on Tuesday that superintendent of police (Thane rural) Ravindra Sengaonkar was being suspended and similar action would be taken against Palghar senior inspector Shrikant Pingle, while additional SP Sangram Nishandar would be warned. TOI also reported that, in separate action, the Bombay high court had transferred first-class judicial magistrate Ramchandra Bagade from Palghar to Jalgaon.

While the Palghar Shiv Sena has called for a bandh on Wednesday, a government holiday, to protest the action against the cops, the Palghar Bar Association has called for a strike to protest the transfer of the magistrate who sent the girls to 15 days' judicial custody before granting them bail of Rs 15,000 each.

In an inquiry report, special inspector general (Konkan) Sukhwinder Singh had said the three police officers had not acted at the right times to stop the arrests and the criminal charges against the girls should be withdrawn. Legal experts said the onus was now on the police to pursue the case against the 10 vandals by filing a chargesheet in court.

"The police officers made untimely arrests, against the advice given by their senior officers, who were of the opinion that a hasty arrest was not required in the case," Patil said. "While the SP went against departmental discipline, the inspector had prepared an erroneous report in the case and applied the wrong sections. Their actions were not appropriate." The suspended duo will also face a departmental enquiry.

Denying that the government action would affect police morale or trigger similar incidents, Patil clarified that the case had to be looked at in isolation and the police and government machinery could learn a lesson or two. He said the government would hold workshops to train cops in the use of the IT Act and appeal to the Centre to modify parts of the Act. In the future, when applying the IT Act in social media cases, cops will have to consult senior officers and maybe also get a legal opinion.

Patil said the whole case will be revisited by senior cops and, if need be, the sections against the girls may be dropped. "We will see what needs to be done after that," said Patil.

In Palghar, meanwhile, residents were seen stocking up on milk, food and other products on Tuesday as they expect Wednesday's bandh to be total.