Yasmin Shaikh (15) committed suicide by setting herself afire on May 17, 2006 at her home in Bail Bazar, suburban Kurla. Though her family suspected a youth to be responsible for her death, police initially registered the case of accidental death. Only after her mother Salma Shaikh moved the High Court, police filed a suicide case.

Moreover, the three accused officers — sub-inspectors Vishwanath Tambe, Abdul Mulani and Police Inspector Dilip Yadav — have been found to have acted in a negligent manner as per a report submitted by DCP Zone V.

Commenting on departmental inquiry report of the DCP, division bench of Justices R M S Khandeparkar and Amjed Sayed said, “If police officers, who are supposed to ensure the implementation of law and order, act like this, are they not liable for prosecution?”

“With these kind of investigations, how will the public trust the police?” the bench said.

Although the court observed that their orders should not have any adverse effects on police department, Justice Khandeparkar said that they cannot be “silent spectators to the criminal negligence shown by authorities.”

Petitioner Shaikh’s lawyer, Nitin Satpute, demanded that the three officers, alongwith station in-charge Vilas Pawar, be booked under various IPC sections regarding creating false evidence.

Though Pawar is not named in DCP’s report, Satpute said that he too refused to entertain girl’s family initially, and even assaulted them on one occasion when they went to police station. Shaikh had moved the court after her failed attempts to lodge a complaint before the Kurla police and also alleged that the police treated her in a filthy manner.

Shaikh’s daughter Yasmin, a standard 10 student, set herself ablaze after pouring kerosene allegedly after one Umesh Aarote (25) threatened to kill her if she did not agree to marry him, says the petition.

Shaikh in her petition said that thereafter she had gone several times to Kurla police station to lodge the complaint but the police did not register the offence. She also said that after Aarote came to know that she was trying to lodge a complaint against him, “he became wild and started harassing her family members”.