Mumbai: The Bombay high court rapped the police during the hearing of the Dabholkar and Pansare murder case. The court said that it was unhappy about the police conducting press conferences and revealing crucial information to the public.
The court also pulled up Dabholkar’s kin for addressing press conferences; the court said it means you don’t have any faith in judiciary. The court told the state SIT, who is conducting investigation in Pansare murder case, to not depend upon ATS investigation and conduct their own independent investigation.
A division bench of Justices S.C. Dharmadh-ikari and B.P. Colabawalla was hearing petitions filed by family members of slain rationalists Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, seeking court supervision in probes being conducted by the SIT (in Dabholkar case) and the state CID (in Pansare case).
The bench, after perusing reports submitted by SIT and CID on the progress of the investigation, said that vital information is been leaked to the media by probe agencies.
Referring to the press conference of senior IPS officer Parambir Singh with Pune police last Friday on their case against activists arrested for alleged Maoist links, Justice Dharmadhikari said, “There are hue and cries about this media briefing.” He further added that, this over-enthusiasm could be fatal and such acts of self-praise was not advisable.
The court asked Anil Singh, CBI counsel to convey to senior police officials concerned that it is unhappy with the press conference. “Ask those police officials to figure out the difficulty involved in proving a case,” Justice Dharmadhikari said.
SIT counsel informed the court that they hadn’t conducted any press conference till date and they await to interrogate the accused in CBI custody. “SIT should continue to look into the involvement of other accused,” Justice Dharmadhikari said.
The bench posted the matter for hearing on October 10.
