Thane court acquits five in 2020 police assault case

A Thane court has acquitted five persons accused of assaulting police personnel in 2020 citing glaring and irreconcilable contradictions in testimonies lack of medical proof or witnesses missing duty records and no evidence of common intention or prearranged plan reported news agency PTIJudge calls prosecution claim lsquophysically impossiblersquoA subinspector and another policeman had alleged that one of the accused caught hold of their collars at the same time during the incident at Kalwa police station in Maharashtras Thane district on February 7 2020Pointing out the logical impossibility of the prosecutions claims Additional Sessions Judge V L Bhosale said This is physically impossible One person cannot simultaneously catch the collars of two different persons This contradiction is not on some minor or collateral matter but goes to the very heart of the prosecution case namely who assaulted WHOM reported PTIA copy of the order dated January 29 was made available on MondayAssault alleged at Kalwa police station in 2020According to the prosecution the accused entered the Kalwa police station became aggressive and assaulted some security personnelThe accused Chittaranjan Bharti Pawan Kuril Chandrakant Kuril Rupali Kuril and Savita Kuril faced charges under Indian Penal Code sections 353 assault on a public servant 504 intentional insult 323 voluntarily causing hurt and 160 affray reported PTIThe case against the sixth accused Kanchan Motilal Kuril was abated as she died during the pendency of the trialCourt notes absence of medical and dutyrelated recordsThe defence lawyers punched holes in the prosecutions case and challenged the charges against the accusedThe Thane court found the testimony of the four police witnesses to be riddled with fatal defects It further noted the complete absence of any medical evidence crucial in a case of assault reported PTIThe Thane court also pointed to a lack of documentary evidence to establish that the officers were on duty as well as no duty roster and no station diary entries produced for the relevant timeIn a case involving police officers as witnesses production of the duty roster and related documents is essential it saidProsecution fails to prove case beyond reasonable doubtOn the charge of affray Sec 160 the court said The word fighting necessarily implies mutual combat a situation where both sides are actively engaged in fighting with each other Onesided assault or attack does not constitute fightingThe prosecution failed to bridge the gap between may be true and must be true it said while granting the benefit of doubt to the accused reported PTIThe prosecution has completely failed to prove its case against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt the judge saidWith inputs from PTI