Sub-inspector only registers non-cognisable offence and deletes offensive photographs from accused's mobile phone
Crimes against women continue to be the talk of the town, and yet, some cops appear to be less than serious in tackling the situation. For instance, when on Sunday, a few residents of Mulund took on a local hoodlum for clicking objectionable pictures of women, a sub-inspector only filed a non-cognisable offence and allowed the miscreant to take off.
The accused: Sachin Ghumre
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According to the victims, Sachin Ghumre -- the accused -- is a resident of the same area. He would sit on a stool at the marketplace and covertly record photographs of women when they would stoop while buying vegetables.
“On Sunday, I was shopping at Vaishali Nagar. Ghumre clicked my picture while I was buying onions. My son, who was with me at the time, noticed this,” said a 40-year-old Mulund resident.
Her son added, “I didn’t confront the accused, but called the police, as Ghumre is notorious in the area. Two constables came over, and after this we managed to access the obscene images of several women, including some I am acquainted with, on his mobile phone.”
The accused was then taken to the police station. But instead of lodging an FIR, sub-inspector Dabholkar registered a non-cognisable (NC) offence, and allowed the goon to leave. “Dabholkar told me to give Ghumre another chance and deleted the pictures,” added the victim.
“Ghumre then started threatening us to take the case back and even harassed some other women from the neighbourhood. In the hope of getting justice, we approached the office of assistant commissioner of police (Mulund Division) Vasant Tajne on Thursday, as no case had been lodged. He called up the sub-inspector and ordered him to register an FIR immediately,” said the son.
The complainants were called to the police station last morning, but Dabholkar again failed to record an FIR, and instead registered another NC against Ghumre for threatening the victim.u00a0“When we asked him about the previous case, he told us that matter was over, and started blaming us saying we should have asked him to register an FIR,” the woman added.
“The miscreant should be punished severely and an inquiry should be conducted against police officials who have been helping people like him, as crimes against women have been increasing rapidly,” said Maharashtra Navnirman Sena member Darshan Joshi.
Copspeak
When contacted by MiD DAY, ACP Vasant Tajne said, “I will have to check what the current status of the case is, but the concerned officer told me that the complainant did not wish to register any case against the accused.”
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