Mumbai: Two men get 6-month imprisonment for manhandling traffic cop

Mumbai, Oct 25: A Mumbai sessions court has sentenced two men to six months' imprisonment for assaulting and manhandling a traffic police constable after he stopped them for road rules violation in 2016.

Additional Sessions Judge S D Tawshikar, in the order passed on October 11, also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 each on the duo and said since the victim police constable had suffered injuries, the accused shall pay a compensation of Rs 8,000 to him. A copy of the order was made available this week.

The judge convicted Mohammad Shakir Ansari and Aslam Mehandi Shaikh, both residents of Worli area in Mumbai, under Indian Penal Code Sections 353 (assaulting a public servant to deter him from discharging his duty) and 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to a public servant).

The court said the prosecution has proved its case against the duo and the medical evidence also corroborates that the traffic constable had suffered injuries due to the assault. As per prosecution, the accused slapped and pressed the neck of traffic police constable Pravin Kadam on July 14, 2016 after he stopped their motorbike on a 'no entry' road in Worli.

The accused's lawyer had argued that the duo was falsely implicated in the case and the medical evidence did not show any injury caused to the constable's face or neck. The court, however, did not accept this and said, "It is needless to say that the mark of slap may not last long. Hence non-mentioning of anything as to slap in medical paper, is obvious and logical."

The court further said there was no previous enmity between the accused and the victim constable and they did not even know each other. "Considering the nature of the offence, it can be seen that the accused manhandled the informant (Kadam) in day light. The informant was on duty and was in uniform at the time of the incident," the order said.