Mumbai, July 10 (FN Bureau) The Bombay High Court issued a contempt notice against a police officer who had not responded on an explanation sought by court in a forgery case against a professor of the National Defence Acadmy in Pune.A division bench of Justice Nitin W Sambre and Justice RN Laddha passed an order during the hearing of a petition field by Kamal Chandra Tiwari, a Professor at NDA, Pune seeking quashing of a FIR of forgery against him while informing the court that he had submitted a disability certificate dated December 1, 2012, issued by Sassoon Hospital, Pune, certifying a 41 per cent disability. However, when the certificate was sent for verification, its original record could not be located at Sassoon Hospital. He told the court that upon this the NDA lodged a complaint alleging that the certificate produced by Tiwari was forged, and a case was registered at the Khadakwasla Police Station for offences under Sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using a forged document or electronic record as genuine) of the IPC. He further said Sassoon Hospital on September 9, 2016, informed the Investigating Officer (IO) that the original record of the certificate had been traced. However, the IO allegedly ignored this and filed a charge-sheet before the Judicial Magistrate First Class on July 27, 2017.
Thus, the petitioner approached the court alleging that he was maliciously prosecuted and sought the case to be quashed. Following this on Feb 8, 2019 the high court issued notice to Anand M Pagare, the concerned IO, seeking his explanation. However, in his affidavit dated April 4, 2019, Pagare, who was an Assistant Police Inspector at Hinjewadi Police Station, Pune, did not comment on whether he looked into the record of the Sassoon Hospital regarding the disability certificate before filing the charge-sheet. Taking serious issue with this, the court said the Pagare is prima facie in contempt of the order dated February 8, 2019. The court further opined that prima facie, he maliciously filed the chargesheet against the petitioner. Therefore, the court directed Pagare to appear physically in the court to address why criminal proceedings should not be initiated against him for maliciously prosecuting Tiwari, ignoring statutory obligations under the CrPC. Further, the court issued a show cause notice to Pagare as to why he should not be made to pay a compensation of Rs. 10,00,000/- to Tiwari for the serious default in his duties.The court ordered the Commissioner of Police, Pune, to serve the contempt notice to Pagare and submit a compliance report by July 13, 2023. The court stayed further criminal proceedings against Tiwari until the contempt issue is resolved and posted the matter for further hearing on July 13, 2023.