New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the arrest of former IPS officer Kuldip Sharma in a 41-year-old wrongful confinement case he was charged with when he was the deputy superintendent of police in Kutch, Scroll reported.
A bench of Justices Rajesh Bindal and Manmohan, while hearing Sharma’s plea challenging a Gujarat High Court order, also granted him exemption from surrendering before the trial court.
It is reported citing Sharma’s lawyer IH Syed that the apex court, granting Kuldip Sharma relief, overturned the High Court order.
Sharma was the deputy superintendent of police in Kutch in 1984 when he was accused of assaulting and unlawfully detaining inside a police station Haji Abdul, an alleged smuggler, who is also known as Ibhalaseth Haji Ibrahim Mandhra.
A political worker Shankarlal Govindji Joshi filed the complaint alleging that the police officer assaulted and detained Abdul for about an hour when he and Abdul, now deceased, had gone to meet Sharma on May 6, 1984 in connection with alleged police harassment in another matter.
Filed two days later on May 8, 1984, the Gujarat government granted sanction to prosecute Sharma in 2012 thus reviving the case.
A Bhuj-Kutch trial court convicted Sharma and his co-accused GH Vasavada 12 years later in February sentencing duo to three month’s imprisonment alongside slapping a fine of Rs 1,000 each and additional term of 15 days in case they failed to pay.
Later the High Court rejected their appeal seeking an exemption from surrender; following which, Sharma filed a revision petition in the apex court.
Arguing that the case against him was flawed and politically motivated, he contended in the trial courts that Gujarat government before granting sanction to prosecute him had a public prosecutor appointed in 2012 to defend him and Vasavada, pointing out the contradiction in the government’s approach.