Amrutha Avasarala, Pune
Four policemen from Gujarat who have tied Muslim men to a pole and laticharged in 2022, approached the Supreme Court, challenging Gujarat High Court’s charges of contempt of court.
The supreme court sternly criticized this act and called it “atrocious” and “unacceptable”. The court asked the police men as to what right they had done this and violated the law by crossing their limits.
A bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sandeep Mehta addressed the appeal on 23rd January 2024. They upheld the High Court’s verdict and questioned them, “Do you have an authority under law to tie people to poles and beat them in public view? And take a video? “ They were further questioned as to What kind of atrocity that was and how they could document it.
The bench asked the advocate representing the police, Siddharth Dave, on what basis they challenged the High Court’s decision when it was a clear case of violating guidelines laid down for the police. Mr. Dave stated that his clients were already facing criminal prosecution and also departmental proceedings and said that the appeal was to question High Court’s jurisdiction over the issue for sentencing the punishment under contempt of court.
The incident is said to have happened on 3rd October 2022 in a garba event in Kheda village of Gujarat. It is alleged that a group of muslim men pelted stones during the event and the police had to surround the group of 40 muslims. They then tied five of them to a pole and thrashed them in public. In addition, videos were taken and made viral. The victims were also illegally arrested for 24 hours.
The Gujarat High Court condemned this act against the policemen, A.V. Parmar, D.B. Kumavat, Laxmansinh Kanaksinh Dabhi, and Rajubhai Dabhi and charged them with contempt of court and charged with 14 days of imprisonment and a fine of rupees 2,000. This was with respect to the 1997 hearing of the Supreme Court in D.K. Basu Vs the State of West Bengal case. The hearing of this case listed down the police’s code of conduct during arrests and detentions.