12 witnesses, no station diary: Ex-cop acquitted in 2010 custodial torture case

Mumbai court has acquitted a retired cop due to lack of station diary proof (Representational image)

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A Mumbai court has acquitted a 72-year-old retired police sub-inspector, Munir Shaikh, in a case alleging the wrongful confinement and torture of a woman and her then 14-year-old daughter at Malvani police station in December 2010. The woman died 10 days after attempting suicide inside the police station.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate D S Khedekar acquitted Shaikh, holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. The court noted that crucial records, including station diary entries and duty rosters that could have established the alleged detention and Shaikh’s role in it, had not been produced.

According to the prosecution, Kunda Shinde and her daughter were detained at Malvani police station from December 14 to 21, 2010, to extract a confession in connection with an alleged gold theft at a residence in Malad. Kunda’s daughter had alleged that Shaikh assaulted her and her mother in custody.

On December 21, Kunda allegedly attempted suicide by hanging herself in a washroom of the police station. Police personnel rushed her to a hospital, where she died of cardiac arrest on December 31 while undergoing treatment.

Timeline of the case (Image generated using Gemini)

An independent inquiry was subsequently ordered, and the case was transferred to the Detection Crime Branch (DCB) – CID. While the initial FIR included a charge of abetment to suicide against Shaikh, the chargesheet invoked sections relating to wrongful confinement and confinement to extort a confession, alongside provisions of the Bombay Police Act.

Several police witnesses said Kunda and her daughter were seen moving freely in the police station premises, rather than being kept under confinement. The court also found inconsistencies in the testimonies of the witnesses.

Defence lawyer Ajay Dubey argued that the station diary and duty assignment registers, which could have established whether the two had been detained and whether Shaikh had been assigned responsibility for them, were not produced.

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The magistrate held that there was no conclusive documentary evidence of their formal detention or official duties in connection with their alleged confinement. The charges of wrongful confinement and physical coercion could therefore not be sustained on the evidence presented.

“The prosecution has failed to prove guilt against the accused beyond reasonable doubt, and the benefit of the doubt goes in favour of the accused,” the magistrate said in the judgment delivered on Monday.

The court acquitted Shaikh and directed him to furnish a surety bond of Rs 15,000, valid for six months.

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