The Bombay High Court today directed the Thane police to submit its reply to a petition filed by a woman alleging that her 22-year-old son committed suicide due to harassment by the police last year. A bench headed by Justice B R Gavai directed that a senior officer from the Thane police department file the reply by January 17, responding to the allegations made in the petition. The plea was filed by Pushpa Jagtap, a resident of Thane district near here. In her petition, Jagtap claimed that her son Mitesh was arrested by officials of Titwala police station in Thane district on August 21, 2017, on the charge of stealing a motorcycle. The petitioner claimed that the police beat her son in the custody and abused him even though he was innocent. She said some police officials refused to return her son's mobile phone when he was released from their custody on August 22. "They (police officials) threatened to incriminate him in other cases and asked us for money in return for the phone.
When my son told them he didn't want his phone back since we had no money to give, they threatened they would ensure that I was publicly shamed," Jagtap said in her plea. "My son couldn't bear this humiliation and constant harassment at the hands of the police and hanged himself in the house on August 23," she said. Jagtap demanded that the police officials concerned be booked on the charge of abetment of suicide.
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