When law enforcers turn extortionists, citizen looks with suspicion: SC

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New Delhi: When law enforcers turn extortionists, the citizen looks with suspicion and is left in a dilemma, the Supreme Court has said while cancelling the anticipatory bail granted to three police officers accused of alleged extortion.

A bench comprising justices Sanjay Kumar and K Vinod Chandran set aside the order passed by the Bombay High Court while terming it ‘cryptic’.

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“When law enforcers turn extortionists, the citizen looks askance and is left in a dilemma. To confront, is to invite instant retaliation and the option is only to succumb meekly to the uniformed authority, even when there is patent abuse,” the bench said.

In this case, the complainant was travelling with his daughter from Mumbai in the Hapa Duronto Express. They, along with his brother-in-law who came to see him off, were detained by police personnel of the sabotage-detection detail at the railway station.

While searching the passenger’s baggage, a gold bar of 14 grams and cash of Rs 31,900 were detected. Despite giving a satisfactory explanation, one of the uniformed men took the three to a nearby room wherein they were intimidated and verbally abused, it was alleged. They were forced to give the cash in return for the gold bar.

The complainant lodged an FIR following which the officers were denied anticipatory bail by the sessions court.

The high court in the instant case granted anticipatory bail to the three officers after viewing the CCTV footage collected in the course of investigation, finding the accused to be wearing identity cards.

It also noted that the complainant and his daughter showed no signs of distress, coupled with the delay in lodging the FIR and unblemished service of the accused.

The top court said that while the expressions of the persons are not clear in the CCTV footage, there are some clear signs of distress which the high court surprisingly failed to notice.

“We are surprised that the High Court observed that there is no sign of distress on them, especially when their expressions are not clear in the footage. We also noticed that the two adults were moving ahead, one of them gesturing frantically with his hands while the child was trailing behind, a definite indication of distress.

“We also find that the time they spent inside the closed room was sufficient for the police men to carry out the complained of actions, which we hasten to observe have to be in any event proved in a criminal trial,” the bench said.