Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The High Court of Bombay at Goa has disposed of a suo motu contempt petition related to police parading and posing with accused persons and circulating the photographs to the media after the 6 police personnel to whom notice was issued in this regard tendered unconditional apology.
DGP Goa also told the court via an affidavit that police personnel have been sensitised in this regard.
Pangam informed the bench that the police had been made aware of the situation and that no such photos had been shared or published following the filing of the petition. The DGP further stated that police officers have been instructed not to take pictures with those who are accused.
The HC had earlier this year served notice to PSI Priyanka (Riyanka) Naik, PSI Amin Naik, PSI Akhilesh Khedekar, PI Kapil Nayak, then SP (anti-narcotics cell) Bossuet Silva, Fatorda police inspector Nathan de Almeida, and asking them to explain why they should not be held in contempt of court for allegedly violating the court’s 2019 directives.
The HC had noticed about seventy news stories from February and March, especially one on March 28 that featured a group of six police officers posing with a woman who had allegedly abandoned her child. She found herself forced to sit before them.
The court noted that it is disrespectful to human rights, the right to privacy, and the right to live in dignity to parade and pose with accused individuals.
The high court launched the 2019 case in response to two police officers who had similarly paraded a mother in front of the media, accusing her of having abandoned her child.
