COPS THRASHED ME FOR COURT ORDER AGAINST THEM’

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‘Cops thrashed me for court order against them’
By Lievanta Millar

Less than three weeks after two youth were physically assaulted by officers at Bandra police station, Moin Khan, an advocate, has alleged that he was beaten up by two officers at Vakola police station on Sunday. Khan said he had gone to the police station to submit a copy of a court order directing the police to register a case against their own officers.

Following the incident on October 16 at Bandra police station in which Asif and Danish Sheikh, both 19, were thrashed by cops, four personnel including a police inspector were transferred to the Local Arms Division. Khan, who has appeared on behalf of the accused in the horrific Shakti Mills gang rape case, said his client Abdul Ejaz, facing robbery charges, had told the court that he was brutally beaten up while in police custody at Vakola police station.

“The court directed my client to appear for a medical test, which revealed that he had been tortured by the police. Based on the medical report, the court directed Vakola police to register a case against six personnel from the police station,” he said.

Khan, who is yet to file a police complaint, claimed he sent his employee, Imran Khan, to Vakola police station’s dispatch office at noon on Sunday to deliver a copy of the court order. However, when cops there refused to accept the order copy and made Imran wait till 3 pm, he went down to the police station himself.

“An officer on duty there refused to accept the order copy and said the Senior PI and the DCP will have to be informed before accepting it. After a brief telephone call, he accepted it, signed it and threw it on my face, saying I was acting cocky because I had a court order against a police officer,” Khan told Mumbai Mirror. Imran said things took a turn for the worse when two officers dragged him back into the police station as he was leaving.

“I heard them say ‘you already have a limp in one leg, we will break the other one too’,” he claimed, adding Khan’s left leg was affected by polio.

“They thrashed me and kept saying ‘Muslims have always been terrorists, when did they start becoming lawyers?’. PSI Ashok Patil and a man in plainclothes assaulted me the most. I’m not sure if the man in plainclothes was a cop. They also took Rs 25,000 in cash from my pocket,” Khan alleged.

DCP (Zone VIII) Virendra Mishra, who reached Vakola police station after the incident, said Moin had come to the police station with a photocopy of the court order, which was why the officer on duty refused to accept it. “The officer told Khan the police were yet to be informed by the court of the order and his was a photocopy, which was not acceptable. I am verifying Khan’s allegations. I have spoken to some independent sources. I also have a video clip which shows Khan using abusive language and creating a ruckus in the police station,” Mishra said.

He added that Khan left halfway through recording his statement and hasn’t gone in for the medical examination arranged by the police. Raj Awasthi, a lawyer known to Khan, said the video clip referred to by Mishra was recorded after the police had assaulted him. “We requested the police to preserve and hand over the footage but have received no response. He left the police station while giving his statement as he was feeling uneasy after the assault. He has gone for a medical check-up on his own,” he said.

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/mumbai/crime/Cops-thrashed-me-for-court-order-against-them/articleshow/49624492.cms