Mid-Day

Mumbai, Jun 17: Gopal Jangam (38) claims that when he approached the Dadar police to lodge a complaint after his wife Sarita (31) was kidnapped, Inspector Prasad Khandekar abused him and told him he should be thankful she was just kidnapped, and not raped.

Gopal alleges that Inspector Prasad Khandekar and Sub-inspector Sarita Chavan also demanded money to register his complaint.

“Chavan got really abusive after I refused to bribe them and Khandekar said I should be thankful Savita was only kidnapped, not raped,” said Gopal.
 
Jangam has moved the Bombay High Court, which issued show-cause notices to top police officials on Monday, asking them to explain why a complaint was not lodged. The petition comes up for hearing on Tuesday.

According to Jangam, two men from his village kidnapped Savita on May 23 and took her to a room in their Mulund house. The men allegedly threatened Savita to withdraw a complaint of assault filed against them at the Dadar police station.

“Savita managed to use the phone in the house and gave me her location. I went to the police with the address, but they did not care. But I persisted and they finally went to Mulund and found Savita,” said Jangam.

Advocate Prashant Sawant, Gopal’s lawyer, said, “We filed a writ petition against the police officials, as none responded to our complaints.”

Senior Inspector VB Marathe of the Dadar police said, “We have received the high court notices and will take appropriate action against the guilty officers. Inspector Khandekar is on leave, and Sub-inspector Chavan is in Delhi.”