oppn parties Beat Up A Man And Get Bail Immediately If You Are Politically-Backed

News Snippets

  • For the first time ever, Mukesh Ambani buys a 29% stake in Gautam Adani's Mahan Energen, a subsidiary of Adani Power to source 500MW of electricity from the company's power plant in MP
  • Stocks continue to rise on Thursday - Sensex gains 639 points to 73635 and Nifty 203 points to 22326
  • Golf - Indian Open: 3 Indians at tied 14th as Joost Luiten takes the lead with a wonderful 7-under 65
  • IPL: RR beat DC by 12 runs as Riyan Parag (84 off just 45 balls) shines
  • SP drops two candidates owing allegiance to Azam Khan from Rampur and Moradabad
  • In Assam, a controversy erupted after a picture of UPPL leader Benjamin Basumatary, lying on a stack of Rs 500 notes circulated on social media. UPPL is an ally of the BJP
  • AAP's Jalandhar-West MP Sushil Kumar Rinku joins the BJP. He was the only AAP Lok Sabha MP
  • Supreme Court dismisses Centre's plea to review its 2023 verdict in the PMLA case
  • Close save for passengers as they remain unhurt after the wings of two planes graze at Kolkata airport. Pilots derostered and inquiry ordered by DGCA
  • Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh gets notice from the EC as well as the BJP for making ugly remarks about Mamata Banerjee's parentage
  • Sadanand Vasanth Date, who faught terrorists in the 26/11 attack and was awarded the Preisent's Police medal, has been appointed the head of the NIA
  • Centre will borrow Rs 7.5L cr in the first six months of FY25, nearly 50% of the target for the full year
  • 25 stocks, including SBI, will see same day trade settlements from today in the world's fastest settlement mode in both BSE and NSE
  • Stocks recover smartly on Wednesday: Sensex rises 526 points to 72996 and Nifty 118 points to 22123
  • Tennis: Rohan Bopanna-Matthew Ebden reached the semifinals of the Miami Open
Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena says government cannot be run from jail, hints at President's Rule in the capital ////// In a dangerous incident, the wings of two planes grazed while taxiing on the runway at Kolkata airport, all passengers were safe but DGCA ordered an inquiry and the pilots were derostered
oppn parties
Beat Up A Man And Get Bail Immediately If You Are Politically-Backed

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2020-09-13 08:42:36

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.

Taking the law in their own hands has become commonplace for some citizens, especially if they are backed by political parties or any other organization. These people do not care about the legal process and often mete out spot justice, much like the spot fines levied by traffic policemen. But in the latter case, at least the citizen is in the wrong for having violated the rules and the traffic sergeant is empowered to fine her or him. But in the former case, neither is the crime proved nor are the dispensers of mob justice empowered to take action.

The case of the Shiv Sena goons beating up a 65-year old ex-navyman, Madan Sharma, just because he allegedly and mindlessly forwarded a cartoon mocking Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar and Sonia Gandhi on social media which they found offensive, falls in the former category. The video shows they beat him up without provocation in what was a planned attack. It was disgusting to watch a group of 8 to 10 men go after a defenseless old man and brutalize him. It has been confirmed that group included Kamlesh Kadam and Sanjay Manjre, both of whom are Shiv Sena shakha pramukhs.

If they were offended by the cartoon, they could have filed an FIR against the accused under the IT Act as well as the IPC. But it seems that either they did not have faith in the judicial system or wanted to assert their supremacy by teaching him a lesson. The victim filed an FIR and six men were duly picked up by the police, only to be given bail in a hurry. It is obvious that the phone call from higher authorities, almost made a cliche in Hindi movies, did the trick.

The police later said that bail was granted as the Supreme Court has empowered the Officer-in-Charge of a police station to grant bail to the accused at the thana level if the maximum punishment for the alleged crime is less than seven years in jail. But what was left unsaid was that the Supreme Court had left it to the discretion of the OC to decide a fit case for grant of such bail. In the instant case, given the political nature of the crime, it was a given that if the accused were released on bail, they would hound the victim and force him to withdraw the FIR against them. Hence, the OC should not have released them. But can a mere OC of a police station go against his superiors or the political masters?