The Bombay High Court today issued a contempt notice to investigating officer of State CID, asking him why action should not be taken against him for not acting against the three policemen involved in a attack on a resident doctor in Solapur.
The court also summoned the Police Commissioner and Deputy Superintendent of Police of Solapur on January 10 to explain why action was not taken against the policemen for offences under the Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institution Act (MMSPMSI Act) 2010.
Nearly 4,000 resident doctors in Maharashtra had gone on an indefinite strike on January 2 after a doctor was beaten up on December 31 in Solapur for allegedly refusing to attend to a pregnant woman in labour pains.
Taking suo motu cognisance of the strike, the court had had issued notices to MARD. The strike was called off after the policemen surrendered before a Solapur court, and got bail as the offences for which they were booked were bailable.
However, the High court then ordered that they also be booked for offences under the MMSPMSI Act which are non-bailable.
After watching the CCTV footage of the incident today, the bench headed by Chief Justice Mohit Shah said the offence under the MMSPMSI Act was cognisable and non-bailable, therefore they should have been arrested.
Prosecutor Prajakta Shinde stated that relevant charges were added to first information report, and permission from to arrest them was being sought.
But the High Court asked why the permission was needed when CCTV footage disclosed an offence prima facie.
The judges said they had passed an order on January 3 asking the police to arrest the errant cops under the Act. However, no action had been taken.
Therefore, the bench today issued a show-cause notice to investigating officer A K Wankhede of CID and asked him to be present on January 10.
