Charges against cop dropped in shelter home case

Mumbai: Terming the allegations against an investigating officer as an “after thought”, the Bombay high court recently rejected an application seeking action against the policewoman in a case related to the sexual exploitation of special children in an orphanage in the Thane district.

A sessions court, in December 2013, had convicted and sentenced Pundalik Gole (secretary of Kavdas orphanage) to life imprisonment. However, sometime ago Gole filed a petition in the high court alleging that the investigating officer Rashmi Karandikar was biased while investigating the case against him and the other co-accused.

Gole made several allegations against Karandikar and had prayed that an inquiry be conducted against her and she should be removed from service after registering a criminal case against her.

However a division bench of Justice V.K. Tahilramani and Justice Mridula Bhatkar, after going through records of the case, observed that the division bench of a former Chief Justice of Bombay high court had taken suo motu cognisance of newspaper reports and had directed an inquiry into the deaths of children in the orphanage. The probe was later handed over to the then ACP Karandikar on the directions of the high court.

The bench noted that the petitioner (who was convicted by the trial court) made allegation against the investigating officer for the first time in August 2015. “Looking at the facts in the case, we are of the opinion that these allegations have been belatedly made by the applicant by way of an after thought,” observed the bench adding, “On perusing the record, we find nothing therein to show that the investigation by this investigating officer was biased or tainted. Thus we find no merit in this application.”

The trial court in 2013 had convicted Gole and five others on different charges of under sections of  the Indian Penal Code and Juvenile Justice Act.