The court also directed the three officers to pay Rs 10,000 from their personal account as cost to the petitioner.

A division bench of Justice R M S Khandeparkar and Justice Amjad Sayed observed that “the only conclusion is that inaction is deliberate and intentional to help the wrongdoers” by the three officers, namely sub-inspectors Vishwanath Tambe, Abdul Mulani and Police Inspector Dilip Yadav, who have been found to have acted in a negligent manner as per a report submitted by DCP Zone V.

Yasmin Shaikh (15) allegedly committed suicide by setting herself ablaze on May 17, 2006 at her home in Bail Bazar, suburban Kurla. Though her family suspected a jilted lover to be responsible for her death, police initially registered it only as a case of accidental death.

Only after her mother Salma Shaikh moved the High Court, police filed a suicide case.

Shaikh’s lawyer Nitin Satpate demanded that three officers be booked under various sections of IPC, but the court left it to the authorities decide.

“Prima facie entire proceedings appear to have been conducted with sole purpose of shielding the real culprit and allow him to go scot-free,” the court held.

Observing that shielding accused is a serious offence, Justice Khandeparkar held that “mere disciplinary action is not sufficient as shielding is a serious offence, especially when committed by police officers.”

“We expect the government to take note of this and take appropriate action,” Justice Khandeparkar said.

“Certainly such inaction on part of police cannot be ignored nor pardoned as it will send not only a wrong message but will also result in great prejudice to the public,” Justice Khandeparkar said.

According to the petition filed by Shaikh, Umesh Aarote, a history sheeter, was in love with Yasmin, though the latter did not respond to his overtures. On January 16, 2006 he tried to drag her out of her house around midnight, but Shaikh’s neighbours came to her help, and he was detained by them. But police came to the spot seven hours later, after Arote had escaped. The very next day, Umesh sent a mobile to Yasmin at the hands of one Ganesh. Yasmin spoke to him on the phone, and immediately thereafter set herself afire.

However, police registered it as a case of accidental death. Only when Shaikh moved the High Court, a case of abetment of suicide was registered against Aarote.

The High Court noted that there was hardly any effort on police’s part to arrest Aarote. Yasmin’s sister’s statement was recorded much later, in which she named him. There was no effort to get hold of the cellphone from which Yasmin last talked to Umesh, the court observed.

The court also pointed out that police readily accepted Yasmin’s dying declaration where she allegedly said that her poor performance in school test was the reason for the suicide attempt.

Police even recorded her teachers’ statement, but did not bother to ask exactly how many marks she had got, the court observed.

“There is a clear attempt to hoodwink and mislead the court,” the judges remarked, talking about investigation officer Vishwanath Tambe’s role.

Judges also said that the dying declaration did not appear to be genuine.