Aurangabad cop facing molestation charge held

AURANGABAD: Assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Vishal Dhume, who is facing charges of molesting and stalking a woman, was arrested on Monday and later produced before a magisterial court which ordered his release on bail against a personal bond and surety of Rs25,000.
Judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) S P Bedarkar directed Dhume to cooperate with the investigating agency and restrained him from tampering with the evidence or absconding from the court's jurisdiction.
Dhume was holding the charge as ACP (Crime) with the Aurangabad city police before he was shifted to the Police Control Room following the incident.
The police have charged Dhume on seven counts: sexual harassment, making unwelcome advances with sexual overtures, stalking, house trespass, assault, intentional insult and criminal intimidation and moved a plea before the JMFC seeking his magisterial custody remand.
The magistrate observed in his order that since the charges against the ACP were punishable with less than seven years and that he being a police officer cannot abscond, no purpose would be served by keeping him in custody. However, conditions can be imposed on him while granting the bail relief, the court said.
The assistant public prosecutor had opposed bail for Dhume on the grounds that being a senior police officer there was possibility of pressurising the witnesses or tampering with the evidence. CCTV footage from the scene of crime clearly establishes the applicant's (ACP) role in the crime, the prosecutor submitted.
Dhume's lawyer, however, argued that his client had been falsely implicated in the case and since the police have sought a magisterial custody remand, the same implies that their investigation has been completed.
The woman has said in her complaint that on Saturday night that she had gone to an eatery along with her husband and daughter. Her husband then spotted Dhume there and, since he knew the police officer, struck up a conversation with the latter. While leaving the eatery after midnight, Dhume requested her husband to drop him to his official quarter, the woman told police.
She said in the FIR that on the way in their car, Dhume, who was in the rear seat, touched her inappropriately.