Dharavi resident accuses police of contempt, files petition against officers who held press conference on 'Naxal sympathisers'

A petition has been filed in the Bombay High Court, asking for contempt action against Maharashtra Police officers who took a press conference on 31 August over the arrests of alleged Naxal sympathisers. [caption id=“attachment_5110871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image. IBN Live[/caption] According to India Today, the petitioner is a Dharavi resident who claims to be witness to the Bhima Koregaon violence. He was quoted as saying that the very officers who, in the lower court in Pune, said that no information about persons and evidence of the case much be leaked, were themselves revealing confidential details of the arrests in the press conference. The petitioner claimed that this is contempt on the Maharashtra Police’s part, adding that they must be reprimanded. The High Court on Monday had also  criticised the Maharashtra Police on the arrest of five activists, for holding the press conference when the matter is sub judice. The move came after a writ petition was filed on 31 August, seeking to restrain the Pune Police from probing the case and demanding an NIA inquiry. The plea also seeks the suspension of ACP Shivaji Pawar from the Swargate Division of the Pune Police. The Maharashtra Police also received  condemnation from  retired judges and lawyers. Senior counsel Mihir Desai had expressed shock over the manner in which the state police machinery undertook the press conference. “Reading out documents which are supposed to be part of the evidence against the accused persons is wrong. The police have not given the said documents to the court or the defence lawyers,” Desai said. Additional Director-General (Law and Order) Param Bir Singh  in a press conference  held on 31 August, while giving details of its case, read out letters purportedly exchanged between the activists. He said they had “conclusive proof” to link left-wing activists arrested in June and this week to Maoists, saying one of them spoke of a “Rajiv Gandhi-type event to end (Narendra) Modi Raj”. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated in 1991.