Nagpur: Coming down heavily on a petitioner for not following its directives of cooperating with investigating officer (IO), the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court dismissed his petition seeking protection from coercive action by police.
Petitioner Sameet Thakkar was granted interim protection by HC on August 28 by restraining police from taking any coercive action against him for his alleged defamatory tweets against chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and son Aaditya over death of Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
“It appears to us that on the one hand, the petitioner seeks interim relief and on the other, he thinks he needn’t follow the conditions imposed by HC under the impression that he can help himself without anybody’s assistance. If this is his conduct, we don’t think it would be appropriate for us to entertain this petition any further,” a division bench comprising Justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote observed.
Thakkar had moved the court through counsel Raspal Singh Renu for quashing of FIR lodged against him at the Sitabuldi police station by Shiv Sena activist Nitin Tiwari.
According to him, the FIR was in response to his revelation about alleged inaction by Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra over the death of a young Bollywood actor. He prayed for quashing FIR against him and also demanded security in wake of alleged threats from Shiv Sena activists.
After Thakkar failed to cooperate, the IO lodged a complaint against him for non-cooperation. Subsequently, HC directed him to report to the police station everyday between 6 pm and 8pm from October 13.
Petitioner’s counsel Renu filed an affidavit on October 20 informing that he had filed two more petitions before two HC benches, including Mumbai, where similar directives were issued. Therefore, it was very difficult for him to come to Nagpur to mark his presence. Thakkar had also moved the Supreme Court with his grievances.
“We can very well understand the petitioner's difficulties in running from one police station to another. But, we can’t understand why he didn’t intimate IO about his difficulties. We also fail to understand why he hasn’t sought any modification of HC’s October 12 order till date that directed him to report to Sitabuldi police,” the judges said.