Mumbai: The Bombay high court, while holding that the activist Trupti Desai-led Bhumata Brigade was not a parallel system of justice, has asked three members of the organisation from Karad to surrender before the magistrate following a complaint by a man who was threatened by them. The man had later even attempted to commit suicide.
The members of the brigade had filed an anticipatory bail application (ABA) in the high court, seeking relief from the arrest on grounds that they had only tried to help
an aggrieved woman who had been abandoned by the man, with whom she was in a relationship. Petrified by the threats of the brigade members, the man had consumed poison. He had lodged a complaint against them last month after he was saved.
The activists, who were pleading their ABA before Justice Sadhana Jadhav, prayed that they had only tried helping a woman after receiving a complaint from her on December 28, last year and had called the man to ensure that he meets the woman he had abandoned. The man and the woman had been in a relationship for five years.
The activists submitted that after the woman had app-roached the police and court unsuccessfully, she approached the brigade for help. When the activists called the man, they had warned him that the woman would commit suicide and he would be implicated. They also chided him for the paltry amount he was offering.
The additional public prosecutor submitted that the man consumed poison after he was harassed by the threat and had to be admitted to a hospital in Pune where he was unconscious for five days. He re-gained consciousness around on January 3, after which a complaint was lodged against the activists for extortion.
After hearing the contention, the court came down heavily on the activists and said that the actions of the activists of Bhumata Brigade seemed to be a parallel system for wreaking vengeance. “Certainly this was not a noble cause. The complainant was exposed to social obloquy because of the act of the present applicants, so much so that he had consumed insecticide and was unconscious for more than five days,” said Justice Jadhav and directed the applicants to surrender.
