A hundred policemen in 15 vehicles swooped down on the Parvati home of advocate Rajendra Shinde on Sunday night and arrested him while he was in his underwear. They took him to Shivajinagar police station for interrogation, said his family members.
The police action came around 11.30 in the night. Shinde was booked under Section 353 of the IPC for obstructing a government servant on duty. When Shinde was brought to the court premises on Monday, he was crying loudly and alleging that the police had thrashed him severely during interrogation.
Many lawyers believe the police action was in retaliation to an attack on a police inspector on Saturday.
Some lawyers had allegedly roughed up assistant police inspector Ashok Randive on the premises of the Shivajinagar district and sessions court. In a statement to the Principal District and Sessions Judge A S Cheema on Saturday, Randive had said, “Shinde asked me to reach the court. When I reached the place, I was roughed up by 10-12 lawyers including Shinde and taken before the Principal District and Sessions Judge. Shinde had called me because I had gone to his place to make enquires about him.”
The enquiries were apparently in connection with earlier cases against Shinde. On October 2, Shinde had been booked by the Bund Garden police under Sections 323 and 504 of the IPC and on September 8, he had been booked under Sections 323, 504, and 427 of the IPC by the Pune Station police. The charges ranged from voluntarily causing hurt to hurling insults intended to provoke breach of peace.
Shinde, on the other hand, claims Randive reached the court premises on Saturday to arrest him. He alleged that Randive was not in his uniform and did not have an I-card at the time. In connection with the case against him, Shinde said he had already filed an anticipatory bail. Shinde had been granted time till October 7.
But on Sunday night, apparently on the orders of the Police Commissioner, policemen from Duttawadi, Shivajinagar and Bund Garden police stations reached Shinde’s house and arrested him. Shinde’s family alleged that the police thrashed him before arresting him. They also said the cops damaged the door of the house besides some furniture. They added that Shinde’s three-year-old daughter fell unconscious when she was accidentally hit by a policeman.
Shinde was produced in the court of the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate S Dhawale on Monday. There was a heavy police bandobast around the court, as the police feared a backlash from the lawyers. Shinde was released on bail on a personal bond of Rs 10,000.