Mohit Shahu plea against Pachpaoli cops in HC today

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay high court is set to hear the petition of Mohit Shahu on Tuesday against the Pachpaoli police seeking transfer of his case to State Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI).
Shahu has stated in the petition he had been implicated in a false case of narcotics, beaten and tortured by cops who had already snatched Rs 2 lakh from him and had been demanding another Rs 3 lakh.
Deviating from routine formats, Shahu made four constables respondents in the case apart from the state of Maharashtra, city police chief, in-charge of Pachpaoli police station and investigation officer. Some cops had tried to influence the family to withdraw the case.
The family of Mohit had earlier exposed police through footage of CCTV installed as part of smart and safe city project. The footage provided by Nagpur Smart and Sustainable Development Corporation Ltd under RTI showed Mohit was arrested from Kanji house chowk near Binaki Mangalwari on February 25 at about 6.30 pm. On record, Pachpaoli police had shown his arrest from Shaitan chowk near Dayanand park at Vaishali Nagar on February 26 at 3.30 am. TOI had highlighted the expose made by RTI.
Shahu family had sought inquiry by the senior police officials in March but there was no response until city police chief BK Upadhyay intervened on May 31. Following CP’s intervention, ACP Lakadganj was assigned the inquiry who too went on leave when the inquiry began on June 3. The family was handed over the letter just half-an-hour before the inquiry started. Shahus had also learnt there were two more letters from ACP office sent to them but they never reached. The family had now again filed a RTI asking the whereabouts of the letters sent prior to June 3.