Policemen granted bail in custodial death case
They also informed the bench that their appeal against the conviction was pending before the high court.
Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday granted bail to three policemen held guilty of and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for torturing a theft suspect (20) to death while in custody.
In January 2016, a city sessions court had convicted the trio, along with head constable Chandrakant Kamble, for the custodial death of Aniket Khicchi.
The policemen argued before the high court bench that Khicchi had been badly thrashed by the public before being handed over to the police, and that they had only discharged their duty in arresting him.
They further submitted that their prosecution was illegal as no sanction had been sought from the department to prosecute them.
They also informed the bench that their appeal against the conviction was pending before the high court.
Based on these submissions, the bench granted bail to the policemen.
A division bench of Justices B.R. Gavai and Sarang Kotwal was hearing the bail application of the three held guilty—Umesh Gosavi, Sandeep Salunkhe and Kiran Pingale.
The trio, along with Kamble, had been tried for the custodial death of Khicchi, who was arrested for allegedly stealing a laptop.
During the trial, the prosecution averred that soon after his arrest, Khicchi was thrashed by the policemen to extract a confession out of him. Khicchi was declared dead when taken to J.J. Hospital the next day.
In their appeals filed through advocates Rajiv Chavan and Vinay Bhanushali, the three policemen have claimed that the theft suspect had already been thrashed by the public.