Mumbai, Sep 9 The Bombay High Court on Wednesday came down heavily on the Palghar police over laxity in probing the case against Shiv Sena workers who assaulted medical staff and vandalised a private hospital in the district, noting that this was a sensitive case.
A bench of Justices A S Gadkari and Kamal Khata said the police have not carried out any investigation at all in the case, calling it “unacceptable”.
The high court said the police have not learnt anything from the previous incident where doctors were assaulted at a civic-run hospital in Thane district in July, in which Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre is an accused.
“Is one incident (Thane hospital) not enough for the police? Has the police not learnt any lesson from the Thane case?” the bench questioned.
The court said if the Palghar police were not interested in probing the case, then it would transfer the case to the Mumbai police’s crime branch.
The HC was informed by the Palghar Superintendent of Police Yatish Deshmukh that out of the ten persons named in the FIR, one person - Shiv Sena city chief Rahul Gharat - has been arrested and is in police custody.
The remaining nine accused are absconding, Deshmukh said.
The bench then asked why police did not take steps promptly to arrest the accused.
“Why are the nine absconding accused not traced out? There seems to be no investigation done after lodging of the FIR. It is because of your (police) laxity that the accused are absconding,” HC said.
The court further questioned why it should not draw an adverse inference against the police.
“This reflects on your inefficiencies. You didn’t learn any lesson from the Thane case. This is unacceptable. This is a sensitive case where a hospital has been vandalised, staffers were assaulted and doctors were threatened. The police has taken an absolutely casual approach,” the court said.
The court posted the matter for further hearing on Wednesday evening.
Between the night of September 5 and 6, several workers from Shiv Sena allegedly barged into Relief Hospital in Palghar, where a few injured ‘Govindas’ who had participated in the Dahi Handi celebrations on September 5 had been admitted.
The workers claimed that the hospital was charging high fees and vandalised the property, threatened the doctors, assaulted staffers and forcibly took away the injured persons who were admitted in the ICU.
The bench was hearing a plea taken up suo motu (on its own) into the assault that occurred at a civic hospital in Thane in July, in which Shiv Sena corporator Ramesh Mhatre is an accused, when senior counsel Ashok Mundargi informed it about the Palghar incident.
